The cross or the poundWhich? A talk on the modernization of civilization in India with application to the Hindu and Hinduism . possiblysaturated with mineral oil, is below, and when thetorch is applied by the son of the deceased, thewhole is so quickly enveloped in flames and smokethat there is little if anything more to be seen thanthe burning of an ordinary pile of wood. What of the odor? you ask. On the wind-ward side none to mention. Sandal wood andother means of lessening possible offensiveness areused by the higher castes. It is soon over and you pass on to witness another,which you find
The cross or the poundWhich? A talk on the modernization of civilization in India with application to the Hindu and Hinduism . possiblysaturated with mineral oil, is below, and when thetorch is applied by the son of the deceased, thewhole is so quickly enveloped in flames and smokethat there is little if anything more to be seen thanthe burning of an ordinary pile of wood. What of the odor? you ask. On the wind-ward side none to mention. Sandal wood andother means of lessening possible offensiveness areused by the higher castes. It is soon over and you pass on to witness another,which you find precisely as the first. At all, thereare but the small number of immediate relatives,foremost among them the son, who has lighted thepyre, and will remain or return later and most care-fully and reverently gather the ashes. Prior to the performance of these last rites he hascarefully bathed and arrayed himself in pure whitegarments, never before worn, and which are de-stroyed as unclean following the termination of hisduties. There is, as a matter of course, the Brah-min or priest, of the lowest rank, to officiate, and. 278 AND THEN ! from whom the son receives the torch or blazingpiece of wood, which answers for such. Howeverillustrious the Hindu may have been, whatever hisdeeds, his rank, or his possessions, the body is atonce consigned to the flames, and his ashes, if notliterally thrown to the wind, are subject to it as thewater of the sacred river is rippled or tossed. If the last act to the dead is of itself simple,and relatively inexpensive to perform, such whichfollow are by no means so. The Shraddha, in-terpreted respect for the dead, is a period of cere-mony and intermingling of relatives and friendslasting three days, and in the carrying out can bemade to cost a very large sum of money. As muchas a half million of dollars have been so expendedin memory of a mother by a devoted son. Amodern rich family will spend a hundred thousanddollars on a Shraddha, and almost an
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