perched on the
brink of the plateau crowning the Ganges will be undermined and its
descent not arrested until the structure reaches the river's bed. Those
responsible for locating Benares on the outer periphery of a great bend
in the Ganges proved themselves to possess no engineering foresight. But
India's controlling religion can receive no setback by the destruction
of a few score tawdry buildings consecrated to its gods, for they will
be replaced by better shrines and temples, rising from places beyond
even the iconoclasm of the sacred Ganges.

Investigation reveals sufficient merit in the religio-philosophies of
Mohammedanism and Buddhism to explain their adoption by teeming
millions. Each faith offers admirable precepts and teachings, and
prolonged study of them produces a feeling of respect for all true
believers. But a season of travel in India, entered upon with the desire
to dispassionately study the Hindu religion in the land of its
overweening strength, produces only bewilderment and mental nausea. The
more determined one may be to lay bare the gems of this faith and its
administration by the Brahmins, the keener will be his disappointment,
for not a redeeming feature will he find, and he may quit India smarting
with regret over wasted time. To such an investigator Hinduism must
forever be remembered as paganism steeped in idolatry. More, its
gruesome sacrifices will provoke only disgust, perhaps equaled by that
called forth by the unspeakably coarse temple carvings and ornamentation
of the cars of juggernaut. I have been acquainted with Indian gentlemen
proud to be known as Hindus, and have been amazed to hear them avow
devotion to the hideous idolatry that absorbs a great part of the time
of two hundred million people in India alone. If the strong arm of
England were not raised over the great empire of the East the suttee
rite and child sacrifice would unquestionably prevail to-day. To a
westerner Hinduism seems the greatest abomination of the earth.

[Illustration: A BRAHMIN PRIEST]

CHAPTER X

INDIA'S MODERN CAPITAL

Kipling, who has gracefully lured roamers to India by saying, "It is
good for every man to see some little of the great Indian Empire and the
strange folk who move about it," obligingly prepares those entering by
the gateway of Calcutta for an olfactory affront. The stenches of
Calcutta are numerous and pervading, surely; but the tourist who has
crawled up the Bay of Bengal in