Here I found the scene at Gaya reproduced, though with a different landscape. Instead of the green forests of the Phalgou, we had this holy city for a background. But the life part of the picture was much the same. Thousands of pilgrims covered the banks, the terraces, the stairs, and devoutly plunged into the stream, in rows of three or four deep. It must not be imagined that this bath was free. Sentries in red turbans, with sabers at their sides, stood on the lower steps of the ghats, and exacted tribute, in company with industrious Brahmins, who sold chaplets, amulets, charms, and other religious articles.
But besides the pilgrims who bathed on their own account, there were also traders whose only business was to draw this most sacred water, and transport it to the distant parts of the
