"The Brahmins have an especial veneration for a stone, which is,
according to Sonnerat, a fossil ammonite in slate.
"It is in the highest degree remarkable that there is no
representation of the Supreme Being to be found in all Hindostan.
The idea appears too great for them; they consider the whole earth
as his temple, and worship him under all forms.
"The adherents of Shiva bury their dead; the others either burn them
or throw them into the river."
No one can form an accurate idea of India who has not gone beyond
Calcutta. This city has become almost European. The palaces, the
equipages are European; there are societies, balls, concerts,
promenades, almost the same as in Paris or London; and if it was not
for the tawny natives in the streets, and the Hindoo servants in the
houses, a stranger might easily forget that he was in a foreign
country.
It is very different in Benares. The Europeans are isolated there;
foreign customs and manners everywhere surround them, and remind
them that they are tolerated intruders. Benares contains 300,000
inhabitants, of which scarcely 150 are Europeans.
The town is handsome, especially when seen from the river side,
where its defects are not observed.
