FORE:Inside the building, under a silken Persian rug, stretched like an awning, there were piles of coin on a cloth spread on the ground, with flowers, rice, and sweetmeats offered there. In a recess was a band of musicians��tom-toms and fiddles��scarcely audible in the turmoil of shouted prayers and the chatter of the faithful.

FORE:All along the narrow streets, paved with broad flagstones up and down in low irregular steps, stand the five hundred temples of Benares, and between them houses with carved stone porticoes. The ochre-coloured stone, of which they all are built, is toned in places by a coating of reddish purple, faded by the rain and sun to pale flesh-colour, with an undertone of the yellow wall; and this takes on a glow as of ruby and sunset fires in the watery ripple reflected from the river��a mingling of every hue of intense sunshine, filtering through the awnings spread over the balconies��a glory of repose, tender and clear, which seems to emanate from the objects themselves, and to envelop them in a fine powder of light.