crowd of male
relations.

The altar, especially erected for this occasion, presented a queer
sight. Its regulation height is three times the length of the bride's
arm from the shoulder down to the middle finger. Its materials are
bricks and white-washed clay. Forty-six earthen pots painted with
red, yellow and green stripes--the colors of the Trimurti--rose in two
pyramids on both sides of the "god of marriages" on the altar, and all
round it a crowd of little married girls were busy grinding ginger.
When it was reduced to powder the whole crowd rushed on the bridegroom,
dragged him from his horse, and, having undressed him, began rubbing him
with wet ginger. As soon as the sun dried him he was dressed again by
some of the little ladies, whilst one part of them sang and the other
sprinkled his head with water from lotus leaves twisted into tubes. We
understood that this was a delicate attention to the water gods.

We were also told that the whole of the previous night had been given up
to the worship of various spirits. The last rites, begun weeks ago,
were hurriedly brought to an end during this last night. Invocations to
Ganesha, to the god of marriages; to the gods of the elements, water,
fire, air and earth; to the goddess of the smallpox and other illnesses;
to the spirits of ancestors and planetary spirits, to the evil spirits,
good spirits, family spirits, and so on, and so on. Suddenly our ears
were struck by strains of music.... Good heavens! what a dreadful
symphony it was! The ear-splitting sounds of Indian tom-toms, Tibetan
drunis, Singalese pipes, Chinese trumpets, and Burmese gongs deafened us
on all sides, awakening in our souls hatred for humanity and humanity's
inventions.

"De tous les bruits du monde celui de la musique est le plus
desagreable!" was my ever-recurring thought. Happily, this agony did
not last long, and was replaced by the choral singing of Brahmans and
nautches, which was very original, but perfectly bearable. The wedding
was a rich one, and so the "vestals" appeared in state. A moment of
silence, of restrained whispering, and one of them, a tall, handsome
girl with eyes literally filling half her forehead, began approaching
one guest after the other in perfect silence, and rubbing their faces
with her hand, leaving traces of sandal and saffron powders. She glided
towards us also, noiselessly moving over the dusty road with her bare
feet; and before we realized what she was doing sh