The other was that of an old man,
attended by his son. The latter was very speedy in securing wood and in
building a funeral pyre. Soon the old man's corpse was stretched on the
bier and the son was applying the torch. He was a good-looking young
fellow, dressed in the clean, white garments of mourning and freshly
shaved for the funeral ceremonies. While he was burning the body of his
father another corpse of a man was rushed down to the river's edge and
placed upon a bier. This body was fearfully emaciated, and when the two
attendants raised it in its white shroud, one arm that hung down limp
was not larger than that of a healthy five-year-old boy, while the legs
were mere skin and bones. It was an ugly sight to see the Ganges water
poured over the face of this corpse, which was set in a ghastly grin
with wide-open eyes. The man had evidently died while he was being
hurried to the burning ghat, as the Hindoos believe that it is evil for
one to die in the house. Hence most of the corpses have staring eyes, as
they breathed their last on the way to the river.

No solemnity marks this cremation by the river's edge. The relatives who
bring down the body haggle over the price of the wood and try to cheapen
the sum demanded by the low-caste man for fire for the burning. The
greed of the priest who performs the last rite and who prepares the
relatives for the cremation is an unlovely sight. All about the burning
ghat where the poor dead are being reduced to ashes hundreds are bathing
or washing their clothes. The spectacle that so profoundly impresses a
stranger is to them so common as to excite no interest.

LUCKNOW AND CAWNPORE, CITIES OF THE MUTINY

Lucknow and Cawnpore are the two cities of India that are most closely
associated in the minds of most readers with the great mutiny. The one
recalls the most heroic defense in the history of any country; the other
recalls the most piteous tragedy in the long record of suffering and
death scored against the Sepoys. The British government in both of these
cities has raised memorials to the men who gave their lives in defending
them and, though the art is inferior in both, the story is so full of
genuine courage, loyalty, devotion and self-sacrifice that it will
always find eager readers. So the pilgrims to these shrines of the
mutiny cannot fail to be touched by the relics of the men and women who
showed heroism of the highest order. When one goes through the rooms in
the ru