Straight in front the marble Taj Mahal rises from a terrace, dazzling white in the sunshine--a summer dream of white clouds turned to stone, a work of art which only love could conjure out of the rubbish of earth. The airy cupola, the arched portals, and bright white walls are reflected in the pool. At each of the four corners of the terrace stands a tall slender minaret, also of white marble, and in the centre the huge dome rises to a height of 240 feet. In the great octagonal hall below the dome, within an enclosure of marble filigree work, stand the monuments over Shah Jehan and his queen Mumtaz. The actual sarcophagi are preserved in the vault beneath. The four facades of this wonderful building are all alike, but the background of green vegetation and the changes of light seem always to be producing new effects. Sometimes a faint green reflection from the foliage can be seen in the white marble; in the full sunshine it is like snow; in shadow, light blue. When the sun sinks in the red glow of evening, the whole edifice is bathed in orange light; and later comes the moonlight, which is perhaps the most appropriate of all. Steamy and close, hot and silent, now lies the garden; the illumination is icy cold, the shadows deep black, the dome silvery white. The mysterious sounds of the jungle are heard around, and the Jumna rolls down its turbid waters to meet the sacred Ganges. BENARES AND BRAHMINISM In the drainage basin of the Ganges, through which the train is again carrying us south-eastwards, 100 million human beings, mostly Hindus, have their home. The soil is exceedingly fertile, and supports many large towns, several of them two or three thousand years old, besides innumerable villages. Here the Hindu peasants have their huts of bamboo-canes and straw-matting, and here they cultivate their wheat, rice, and fruits. Our next stay is at Benares--the holiest city in the world, if holiness be measured by the reverence shown by the children of men. Long before Jerusalem and Rome, Mecca and Lhasa, Benares was the home and heart of the ancient religion of India, and it still is the centre of Brahminism and Hinduism. There are more than 200 millions of Hindus in the world, and the thoughts of all of them turn to Benares. All Hindus long to make a pilgrimage to their holy city. The sick come to recover health in the waters of the sacred Ganges, the old travel hither to die, and the ashes of those who die in distant places are sent to Benares to be scattered over the waters of salvation. In Benares, moreover, Buddha preached 500 years before Christ, and at the present day he has more than 400 million followers; so to Buddhists also Benares is a holy place. [Illustration: PLATE XIII. THE TAJ MAHAL.]