File:Winter India (1903) (14783120963).jpg

Identifier: winterindia00scid (find matches)
Title: Winter India
Year: 1903 (1900s)
Authors: Scidmore, Eliza Ruhamah, 1856-1928
Subjects: India -- Description and travel
Publisher: New York : The Century Co.
Contributing Library: University of California Libraries
Digitizing Sponsor: MSN

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fy such holy men. At sunrise the ghouls of the cremation-groundor burning-ghat began heaping funeral piles for thedays work, and others of this lowest caste werecarrying yesterdays ashes to the waters edge,washing them in sieves and pans like any placer-miner to recover the gold, silver, and jewels burnedwith the bodies. The domri, who conduct crema-tions, surpass the Occidental undertakers in their ex-tortionate charges—for firewood, oil, and the flam-ing brand for starting the blaze. Shrouded andflower-decked bodies, lashed to litters of poles, wereborne down the steps and laid at the waters edge,the feet resting in the sacred river while the pyrewas made ready and the relatives paid the domriand paid for prayers by the Sons of the Ganges—a legion of fat priests shouting under great umbrel-las—brigand Brahmans of the river bank, no lessmercenary and rapacious than the outcast domri,A dead woman shrouded in white and roped overwith marigold chains was laid whore the foul waters
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THE GREATEST SIGHT IN THE WORLD 161 could lave the feet, a sewer arch discharging buta yard away, and the evil doniri panning out theirtreasure close by. When the pyre was ready, thebody was completely immersed for a moment, car-ried up and laid on the fagots, and a sobbing, fright-ened little boy, his tunic wet in Ganges water, laidsandalwood and spices on his mothers body, ranfive times around the pile as priests and relativespushed and pulled him through his part, and,touching the torch to the oil-drenched fagots, ranshrieking to a servants arms. The flames leapedand crackled, jets of thick smoke curled around,the fire lapped over the edges of the grave-clothes,and smoke mercifully concealed the rest. The domristood by with long irons arranging the fire, addingwood and oil, while the family group waited thereuntil all should be consumed. A prisoners bodyfrom the jail was laid by the sewers mouth, and in-stead of being burned in the later, cheaper hours ofthe afternoon, was to be cr

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