At the present
time the festival is attended by Baboos of the best class; but it amounts
simply to an athletic exhibition with music. The government and the
reformers have brought about this change of performance."
"Do the English attend such shows?" asked Dr. Hawkes.
"Sometimes, from curiosity. But they are here just about what they are in
London, and their habits are much the same," replied the viscount. "The
river here is about a mile wide. Formerly we could not have come as far as
we have without seeing hundreds of corpses floating on the surface. Natives
who were too poor to pay the bill for the funeral pyre threw the bodies of
their friends into the river. Of course this was a menace to the health of
the city; and the practice was forbidden by the government, which built an
immense tower, wherein is kept a fire constantly burning, in which the
bodies of the poor are consumed without expense."
"See that big bird on the shore!" exclaimed Mrs. Belgrave. "I saw several
of them yesterday, and I meant to ask what it was."
"That is the _arghilah_, generally called the adjutant," replied Sir
Modava. "He is the licensed scavenger of Calcutta, for it is forbidden by
law to kill or molest him. You see him walking about in a crowd with as
much dignity and gravity as though he were a big banker; and he is also
seen perched upon the walls and buildings.
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