"Doctor Bronson says there is a curious parallel in the histories of Buddhism and Christianity—that neither of them is the religion of the city of its origin. Benares was the sacred city of the Bramins before Buddha was born, just as Jerusalem was the sacred city of the Jews. In each city a new religion was developed, and missionaries went out to instruct the people; Buddhism was finally driven out of Benares in much the same way as Christianity was expelled from Jerusalem. Buddhism does not exist at Benares to-day, nor has there been more than a trace of it for the last thousand years; the Braminism that followed its expulsion was worse than that which preceded it, and consequently India gained nothing at all by the reformation."
WATER-BEARING OX AT BENARES.
[CHAPTER XXX.]
BENARES TO LUCKNOW.—SIGHTS IN THE CAPITAL OF OUDE.—THE RELIEF OF LUCKNOW.—KAVANAGH'S STORY.
After the foregoing letter was completed our young friends devoted another day to sight-seeing in Benares in company with Doctor Bronson. They went through the narrow streets, where it is impossible for carriages to circulate, and were jostled by the sacred cattle that frequently blocked the way; the pilgrims gave them a wide berth for the reasons already stated, but the animals were not so particular. They saw temples and shrines in great number, and readily accepted the statement that Benares was wholly given to idolatry, and was the holiest city of India in the eyes of the natives. They gazed upon the devotees that thronged the streets and crowded to the bank of the river, and now and then saw a dying Hindoo who was being carried to the ghauts, that he might breathe his last with his eyes fixed on the sacred stream.