CHAPTER LXVI.
SKETCHES ON THE GANGES FROM DINAPŪR TO BENARES.
The Soane River—Chuppra—Revelgunge—The Fair at Bulleah—Bamboos—The
Wreck—Buxar—The Peepul Tree and Temple of Mahadēo—Barrah—Satī
Mounds—Kurum-nassa River—Palace of the Nawāb of Ghazipūr—The
Native Town—The Gigantic Image—Three Satīs and a Mandap or Hindū
Temple—Eight-and-Twenty Satīs—The Fate of Women—The Kalsās—Station
of Ghazipūr—The Stalking Horse—Booraneepūr—Kankar Reefs—Seydpūr—Burning
the Dead—Rites for the Repose of the Soul—Brahmanī
Bulls—Funeral Ceremonies of the Romans—Raj Ghāt, Bunarus.
1844, Nov. 20th.—To-day the scenery has been most uninteresting; nothing to be seen but sandbanks; the river is full of shallows, and there is no wind. Lugāoed on a fine open space in the middle of the river; it is really a good-sized island of fine and beautifully white sand. Four miles above Dinapūr is the junction of the Soane with the Ganges.
21st.—Sandbanks and shallows the whole day: we have advanced very little, and have moored as usual on a bank. Looking around me, I see nothing but a wilderness of sand-*banks in the midst of the broad river, only terminating with the horizon—not a tree, not a house to be seen; here and there a distant sail. There is something very pleasing in this monotonous solitude; the only sound the roar of the sandbanks, as they give way and fall into the stream, with a noise like distant thunder. These high sandbanks are undermined by the strong
