drink from the holy wells is absolutely putrid, so that the odor can be detected a considerable distance.  And yet half a million devotees from every part of India come here annually, and not only drink the poisonous stuff, but bathe in the polluted river and carry back to their homes bottles of it carefully corked and labeled, which the doctors tell us is an absolutely certain method of distributing disease.  While almost all the large cities of India increased in population during the the last decade, Bombay and Benares fell off, the former from plagues and famine and the latter from all kinds of contagious and other diseases.

It is a city of great wealth and has many handsome and costly palaces and mansions which have been erected there by pious Hindu princes, rajahs, merchants, bankers and others who spend a part of each year within its sacred precincts, renewing their relations with the gods just as other people go to the springs and seashore to restore their physical vitality.  The residential architecture is picturesque but not artistic.  The houses are frequently of fantastic designs, and are painted in gay colors and covered with carvings that are often grotesque.  They have galleries around them, and broad overhanging eaves to keep out the rays of the sun, and many of them are set in the midst of attractive groves and gardens.  Some of the modern buildings are very fine.  There is plenty of room for the display of landscape gardening as well as architecture, but the former has been neglected.  The one thing that strikes a stranger and almost bewilders him is the vivid colors.  They seem unnatural and inappropriate for a sacred city, but are not more incongruous than other features.

The streets in the outer part of the city are wide, well paved and well shaded.  The business portion of the town, where the natives chiefly live, is a wilderness of narrow streets hemmed in with shops, factories, dwelling houses, temples, shrines, restaurants, cafes and boarding houses for pilgrims.  Every shop is open to the street, and the shelves are bright with brass, silver and copper vessels and gaily painted images of the gods which are purchased by the pilgrims and other visitors.  Benares is famous all over the world for its brass work and its silks.  Half the shops in town are devoted to the sale of brass vessels of various kinds, chiefly bowls of many forms and styles which are required by the pilgrims in performing their religious duties.  In addition to these there are a hundred different varieties of domestic and sacred utensils, many of them beautifully chased and engraved, and they are sold to natives at prices that seem absurd, but foreigners are expected to pay much more.  Indeed, every purchase is a matter of prolonged negotiation.  The merchant fixes his price very high and then lowers it gradually as he thinks discreet, according to the behavior of his customer.