creature to the bottom, to be seen no more. Here is murder in the name
of religion. He is a devotee, and has purchased heaven, as he supposes,
by this his last good deed. In another place you might see a person
seated in the water, accompanied by a priest, who pours down the throat
of the dying man mud and water, and cries out, "O mother Gunga, receive
his soul." The dying man may be roused to sensibility by the violence.
He may entreat his priest to desist; but his entreaties are drowned. He
persists in pouring the mud and water down his throat, until he is
gradually stifled, suffocated--suffocated in the name of
humanity--suffocated in the name of religion.

It happens, sometimes, in cases of sudden and violent attacks of
disease, that they cannot be conveyed to the river before death. Under
such circumstances, a bone is preserved, and at a convenient season is
taken down and thrown into the river. This, it is believed, contributes
essentially to the salvation of the deceased.

Sometimes strangers are left on the banks to die, without the ceremony
of drinking Ganges water. Of these, some have been seen creeping along
with the flesh half eaten off their bones by the birds; others with
their limbs torn by dogs and jackals, and others partly covered with
insects.

After a person is taken down to the river, if he should recover, it is
looked upon by his friends as a great misfortune. He becomes an outcast.
Even his own children will not eat with him, nor offer him the least
attention. If they should happen to touch him, they must wash their
bodies, to cleanse them from the pollution which has been contracted.
About fifty miles north of Calcutta, are two villages inhabited entirely
by these poor creatures, who have become outcasts in consequence of