. Indika. The country and the people of India and Ceylon . the poor infant round and round In the soft gauzy folds she wound,That soon its struggles might be oer. And with quick steps, though each one sank, In the green, oozy river bauk,Down among the reeds she cowered. There gently laid the fated child, And, oer it, from her basket, piledGreen leaves, and blossoms showered,Then pressing both hands to her head, As if in agony of fear Its dying shriek to hear,Nerved by despair, with frenzied speed she fled. Drifting with the Ganges. We halt now and then, to take in more fully the strangemorning
. Indika. The country and the people of India and Ceylon . the poor infant round and round In the soft gauzy folds she wound,That soon its struggles might be oer. And with quick steps, though each one sank, In the green, oozy river bauk,Down among the reeds she cowered. There gently laid the fated child, And, oer it, from her basket, piledGreen leaves, and blossoms showered,Then pressing both hands to her head, As if in agony of fear Its dying shriek to hear,Nerved by despair, with frenzied speed she fled. Drifting with the Ganges. We halt now and then, to take in more fully the strangemorning scene in the Ganges at Benares. Palaces, bearing thenames of all the principal native rulers, line the bank. Towers,lattices, porticoes, spires, and minarets, of all colors, form a match- BENARES THE UOLT CITY. 507 less panorama of Oriental splendor.* Every moment the pano-rama shifts. But in each case there is animation. The scenesupon the forty-seven stepways, or ghats, which Lead up fromthe rivers edge to the terrace along the upper bank, are at once. /rsf •?.•;... A WINDOW IN BENARES. bewildering and revolting. One face I can never forget—anaged man, absorbed, with eyes fixed upon the sun, as thoughhoping that he might be wafted that moment from the Gangesto the celestial city. Brahmanism and Mohammedanism exist Temple, India in 1880, p. 35. 568 INDIKA. side by side here. We drift with the current until we comeopposite the tall minaret built by the great Aurangzeb. When the Mohammedans captured Benares, three centuriesago, they mutilated many of the temples, but did not prohibitHindu worship. Their policy in India was more liberal, per-haps, than on any other conquered field. While permittingmany of the Hindu temples to stand, they planted their ownmosques, and reared their minarets, in close proximity. Themosque and minarets of Aurangzeb, on the bank of the Ganges,at Benares, however, stand on the site of a temple of Mahadev,or Shiv, or, as he is commonly called, Si
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