The Government of Bengal has done a very unwise thing.
Some ten millions of people, living on the banks of the Ganges, have from time immemorial been in the habit of throwing their dead into the sacred river. They cannot afford to burn them to ashes, and will notbury them, so they char them on the pyres and fling them into the water. The practice has now been prohibited, to the wrath and consternation of all Hindoos, who loudly threaten resistance. The order seems very unwise, for the practice, though we may think it disgusting, does not, like suttee or infanticide, destroy human life, and its effect upon health can hardly be very great. The stream rolls very rapidly, and a traveller may ascend the river every day for years and only perceive the bodies by the vultures perched upon them. If the Government insists on its order it must burn the dead at the public expense.
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