Travels in India (Tavernier) 134.2

134.2

and as soon as the food is thrown into the river all the people should enter and continue rubbing themselves, and bathing their bodies until the eclipse is over. As this eclipse appeared at a time when the Ganges is usually very low, after the end of the rains, which last from the month of July to the end of October, for more than 3 leagues above and below the town, and as many as the river extends in width, nothing was to be seen but heads on the water. As for the Brahmins, they remain on land to receive the richest and those who give them most, to dry their bodies, and give them dry clothes to cover the middle of their bodies. Then they make them sit in chairs, where the richest of the idolaters have brought an abundance of Indian corn, rice, and all kinds of vegetables, with milk, butter, sugar, flour, and wood. Before each chair the Brahmin makes a very clean place of about 5 or 6 feet square, after which he takes cattle droppings steeped in a great dish of yellow pigment, in order to rub over all the place, through fear lest some ant might come there and be burnt. If possible, their ceremonies are conducted without burning wood, and in order to cook their food they generally use cattle droppings.