We went from Prage down the Ganges, which is here very broad, and abounds in various wild-fowl, as swans, geese, cranes, and many others, the country on both sides being very fertile and populous.  For the most part the men have their faces shaven, but wear the hair of their heads very long; though some have their crowns shaved, and others have all their heads shaven except the crown.  The water of the river Ganges is very sweet and pleasant, having many islands, and the adjoining country is very fertile.  We stopt at Bannaras, [Benares], a large town in which great quantities of cotton-cloths are made, and sashes for the moors.  In this place all the inhabitants are gentiles, and the grossest idolaters I ever saw.  To this town the gentiles come on pilgrimages out of far distant countries.  Along the side of the river there are many fair houses, in all or most of which they have ill favoured images made of stone or wood; some like lions, leopards, or monkeys; some like men and women; others like peacocks; and others like the devil, having four arms and four hands.  These all sit cross-legged, some with one thing in their hands, and others with other things; and by break of day or before, numbers of men and women come out of the town to these places, and wash in the Ganges.  On mounds of earth made for the purpose, there are divers old men who sit praying, and who give the people three or four straws, which they hold between their fingers when they bathe in the Ganges; and some sit to mark them in the forehead:  And the devotees have each a cloth with a small quantity of rice, barley, or money, which they give to these old men when they have washed.  They then go to one or other of the idols, where they present their sacrifices.  When they have finished their washings oblations and charities, the old men say certain prayers by which they are all sanctified.

In divers places there stand a kind of images, called Ada in their language, having four hands with claws; and they have sundry carved stones on which they pour water, and lay thereon some rice, wheat, barley and other things.  Likewise they have a great place built of stone, like a well, with steps to go down, in which the water is very foul and stinking, through the great quantity of flowers which are continually thrown into the water:  Yet there are always many people in that water, for they say that it purifies them from their sins, because, as they allege, God washed himself in that place.  They even gather up the sand or mud from the bottom, which they esteem holy.  They never pray but in the water, in which they wash themselves over head, laving up the water in both hands, and turning themselves about, they drink a little of the water three times, and then go to the idols which stand in the houses already mentioned.  Some take of the water, with which they wash a place of their own length, and then lie down stretched out, rising and lying down, and kissing the ground twenty