THE BATHING GHĀT.
The principal bathing ghāt has been lately rebuilt in a most splendid manner by the Government of Bengal, under the superintendence of an officer of engineers; it is now both elegant and commodious, and will prevent the destruction of so many human beings, which so often occurred by the sudden rush of the devotees through the old and narrow ghāt to reach the water at the propitious moment, which was often at midnight. The auspicious moment is calculated by the Brahmans, who aver that a great increase in the efficacy of the rite is derivable from its performance, when Jupiter is in Aquarius, which happens every twelfth year, or when the sun enters Aries.
A wandering mendicant in the foreground is playing on an ektara, a one-stringed instrument, formed of a gourd, surmounted by peacocks’ feathers—the Paganini of the East!