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INDIA : ITS HISTOKY AND TREASUEES. 219
fashions and styles of their own.
The rich hahoos — Hindoo
gentlemen — occupied prominent positions in the gay procession
and motley gathering.
Lower-caste Hindoo life is seen in the bazaars ; and
though there are disgusting sights and rank odors, along the
narrow native streets, we neither heard nor saw the Calcutta
jackals so often described by romancing writers. Crows,
however, may be numbered by myriads. Nestling at night
in the ornamental shade-trees of the city, they engage early
in the morning at the scavenger business, and often mistake
the kitchen for their legitimate field of operations. Tall,
stork-like birds, called " adjutants," also do scavenger-work.
At night they perch upon the tops of the public buildings,
standing like sentinels on guard.
The city is watered from immense reservoirs. The
natives bathe in them, wash their garments in them, and then,
filling their goat-skins for domestic purposes, and slinging
them under the arm, supported by a strap, they trudge
moodily away to their employer's residence. Drinkingwater
is drawn from wells in a very primitive way.
Women
have but few privileges. They seldom appear in the streets ;
and then, if married, they veil their faces. One is continually
reminded, while studying the Hindoo socially, of Old
Testament manners and customs.
EIVER SCENES. — JUGGERNAUT. — THE BANYAN-TREE.
Occupying a place in Gen. Litchfield's barouche, we
drove along, early one morning, by the river's side some four
miles, witnessing the bathing and worshiping of the Hindoos
in the flowing Hooghly.
Gesticulating, bowing, sprinkling
themselves, and intoning prayers, these worshipers
counted their beads much as do the Catholics. Paying no
regard to the Christian's Sunday or the Mohammedan's
Friday, these sincere Hindoos hold in
great reverence festival
days of their gods. The English government grants the
different religionists of the country some sixty holidays during
the year.