Its Religious Aspects. — The worship of this river is enjoined in the Hindu Shasters. Certain places on it are particularly sacred. At Hurdwar, or the Gate of Vishnu, where the Ganges issues from the Hima- laya, the number assembling annually is calculated to amount to two millions and a half. Jlost of them come to wash away their sins. After every twelve j'ears, which is a more auspicious period, millions as- semble on certain festival days, and it requires a strong police force to keep tlie people from drowning each other, in the rush to bathe at the auspicious moment. At Allahabad, where the Ganges and Jumna unite, a third river, called Sarasicatee, sister to these two, ac- cording to Hindu notions, flows under them. Tho junction is called Tribenee, and the sanctifying and purifying influences are secured to the worsliipper by lying for a short time in the water in a prescribed position. The place where the Ganges empties it- self into the sea is also sacred (see Dass, Manners and Customs of Hindus). According to "Ward, the water is used for food, bathing, medicine, religious ceremonies, etc. ; and formerly, wlien a Hindu king was crowned, it was poured upon his head as a part of his conse- cration. Until recently, the water of this river was used in the English courts of India in administering the oath to Hindus. So much is this river reverenced among the Ilindijs, that man}' Brahmans will not cook upon it, nor throw saliva into it, nor wash themselves nor their clothes in it. Some persons perform a jour- ney of five or six months to bathe in the Ganges, or to perform rites for deceased relations, and to carry this water to places in their houses for religious and medic- inal purposes. Man}- rich men, living at a great dis- tance, keep men constantly employed in making the journey to and fro to Ijring Ganges water. In these cases a relay of men is established at convenient dis- tances, and the water, carried in small bottles, careful- ly placed in baskets suspended on a bamboo swung across the shoulder. All castes worship Ganga. She is represented, according to Ward, as a white woman wearing a crown, sitting on the sea-animal named Ma- kara, and having in her right hand a water-lily, and in her left the lute. In certain months the merit of bath- ing in the Ganges is greater than in others. In eveiy month, on the first, sixth, and eleventh of the moon, and at its total wane also, bathing in the Ganges is recommended. According to the Ganga, Yah/a, Yalee, there are 3,500,000 holy places belonging to Gangii. The person who looks at Ganga, or bathes in this riv- er, will obtain all the fruit which arises from visiting all these 3,500,000 places. If a person who has been guilty of killing cows, Brahmans, or his holy teacher, or of drinking spirits, touch the waters of the Ganges, desiring in his mind the remission of these sins, they will be forgiven. " Amongst the rivers which, at tho classical and the Purdnic period of India, were held in peculiar sanctity tiy the nation, the Ganges undoubt- edly occupied the foremost rank. In the Vedic poetry it is but seldom mentioned ; and, whenever its name occurs, whether in the hymns of the liigvrda, or the ritual text of the Yajurveda, no legendary fact or myth- ical narrative is connected with it. Nor does the law- book of Mann justify the conclusion that its author was acquainted with any of the myths whicli connect this river in the epic poems and in the Pin-anas with the Pantheon of India. The earliest, and l)y far the most poetical legend of the Ganges, occurs in that mas- terpiece of Sanscrit poetry, the Rdmdyana. We give its substance, because it explains the principal epithets b}' which this river is spoken of, or invoked in ancient and modern Hindu poetry, and l)ecause it may 1* look- ed upon as the type of the many fables which refer to the purifying and supernatural properties of its waters. There lived, says the Rdmayana, in Ayodhyii (the mod- ern Oude), a king, by the name of Sagara, who had two wives, Kesini and Sumati ; but they bore him no issue. He therefore repaired to the Himalaya; and
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