he offers flowers. In
his own dwelling other divinities await him, five black stones,
[417] representing Siva, Ganesa, Surya, Devi and Vishnu, arranged
according to the cardinal points: one towards the north, a second to
the south-east, a third to the south-west, a fourth to the north-west,
and one in the centre, this order changing according as the worshipper
regards one god or another as most important; then there is a shell,
a bell--to which, kneeling, he offers flowers--and, lastly, a vase,
whose mouth contains Vishnu, the neck Rudra, the paunch Brahma, while
at the bottom repose the three divine mothers, the Ganges, the Indus,
and the Jumna.

"This is the daily cult of the Brahman of Benares, and on holidays
it is still further complicated. Since the great epoch of Brahmanism
it has remained the same. Some details may alter, but as a whole it
has always been thus tyrannical and thus extravagant. As far back
as the Upanishads appears the same faith in the power of articulate
speech, the same imperative and innumerable prescriptions, the same
singular formulas, the same enumeration of grotesque gestures. Every
day, for more than twenty-five hundred years, since Buddhism was a
protest against the tyranny and absurdity of rites, has this race
mechanically passed through this machinery, resulting in what mental
malformations, what habitual attitudes of mind and will, the race is
now too different from ourselves for us to be able to conceive."

Secular Brahmans now, however, greatly abridge the length of their
prayers, and an hour or an hour and a half in the morning suffices
for the daily bath and purification, the worship of the household
deities and the morning meal.

17. The sacred thread.

Brahman boys are invested with the sacred thread between the ages of
five and nine. The ceremony is called Upanayana or the introduction to
knowledge, since by it the boy acquires the right to read the sacred
books. Until this ceremony he is not really a Brahman, and is not bound
to observe the caste rules and restrictions. By its performance he
becomes Dvija or twice-born, and the highest importance is attached
to the change or initiation. He may then begin to acquire divine
knowledge, and perhaps in past times it was thought that he obtained
the divine character belonging to a Brahman. The sacred thread is
made of three strands of cotton, which should be obtained from the
cotton tree growing wild. Sometimes a tree is