![]() This went on for a very long time without any variation, except when the contributions flagged, and the priests came forward and cried out, and tom-toms were beaten and cymbals clashed around the gods. A scarlet and green cow sold for half an anna. The sweetmeat and pan sellers went continually among them, and there were also men selling rude images of animals, colored a very bright or red blue. Every now and then a tall lank figure came to the front of the platform and waved his long skinny arms wildly about this is the signal for the crowd to shout, and they obeyed it without hesitation, and stood looking vacantly at the two gods on the platform and at Krishna. He replied to me by begging a cheroot - so rapid is the march of intellect in this country. I asked a native who stood by what was done with the money. Into this hand the pious poured two and four anna pieces, or pice, and the priests swept the money away as fast as the hollow palm was filled. One of these immense heads had an arm beneath it, made of brass, and with the open hand outstretched. With immense shouting they carried this potentate to a large platform, on which were already assembled a crowd of Hindoos, ministering to several huge blocks of wood, hideously daubed with red and yellow in the human likeness. Behind him came a vast, tumultuous throng, ten times as numerous as that which ordinarily closes a London procession, but less boisterous and wild, for your Bengalee is a man of peace, and hates to get his head broken. He sat on a sort of throne, and had a canopy over his head to keep his blessed brains from addling in the sun. This was the god Krishna, a little, ugly, wooden figure, dressed in bright colors and gold, and playing on a pipe. Then came a horde of latee-wallahs - men carrying sticks to keep off the mob then a few musicians, and after them the object to which every eye was turned, and to which every one was paying reverence by joining the hands and bringing them to the forehead in a supplicatory manner. It was preceded by tall fellows carrying silver wands, headed by an old one-eyed devotee, who looked ready either to worship his deity or commit a murder, on the spur of the moment. The great living stream was suddenly stopped by a procession, which turned out of a narrow lane. Once fairly in the steaming crowd, the atmosphere was simply horrible, but the Hindoos thoroughly enjoyed it. On this occasion the thermometer marked 135 degrees, and the ground beneath one's feet was like hot lava. A June day in the plains of Bengal is not a good time for going out to see sights. On the Sunday morning I speak of they swarmed along under the influence of these pleasures, quite heedless of the temperature, which naturally was the first thing that struck the European. The enjoyment of a Bengalee out for a holiday consists in his eating pan till he is utterly stupefied, and making as much noise as the means which nature has given him will admit of. I went to see both these ceremonies, and you may, perhaps, have some curiosity to know how the Hindoos, upon whose education we are spending so much time and thought, perform their religious rites at the present day within 20 miles of the capital of the empire. It ended on the 6th of the present month, when the cars were drawn back by thousands of people, and the god was replaced in his home. ![]() The festival began on Sunday the 19th of June, by the priests bringing forth the god to be bathed. I will tell your presently how far they heed the Government. Government decided that it was better for them not to commit self-murder. ![]() That pleasure, as I thought, is now denied them. ![]() In former times many were in the habit of increasing the general happiness by throwing themselves under the wheels of the Juggernaut car. Tens of thousands of persons, of all classes and ages flock to attend them women will walk thirty or forty miles in a day, carrying their children astride on their hips, to be present and on the nights preceding the principal days the roadsides are filled with men, women and children lying down asleep, wearied out with their long march. They form the great Juggernaut saturnalia, so widely celebrated. The Suan Jatra and the Ruth Jattra are still two of the greatest festivals of Hindooism. ![]()
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