The Hindoo temples are not so large as our churches, but only from fifteen to forty feet square, and their style of architecture is frequently very pleasing to the eye. They contain no seats or pulpits, and the ceremonies consist exclusively of offerings, prayers, and signs. People come and go incessantly, there is no silence or devotion, but all is noise and turmoil. The Brahmins glide quietly around everywhere and watch closely so that no one escapes until he or she has parted with as much loose change as possible, and it frequently happens that the Brahmin and the worshiper get into a loud quarrel about the fee which the latter is to pay for the benediction. We ascended an eight-foot-wide street paved with large flag stones, which were crowded with endless rows of people coming out or going into the temples on either side. To some of these a few steps led downward, to others upward. In some of the nooks and niches formed by the outer walls of the temple sat peddlers selling ornaments, flowers, fruit, boiled rice, popcorn, confectioneries, and small idols, of stone, porcelain, or metal. [Illustration: DYING BRAHMIN.] We stepped into the so-called golden temple, dedicated to Bishashar, or Shiva, the most prominent deity of Benares. Like most of the temples it is built of brick, and has a gray coat of plastering on the outside. It has three domes which are covered with colored metal, and the interior is divided into three rooms, in each of which is a stone image representing the creative principle. The worshipers throw rice and flowers at these images, and officiating Brahmins continually pour over them water from the Ganges. Within a separate inclosure is a sacred well called "Gyan-Bapi," or the well of knowledge, into which the rice and the flowers from the images are washed by a continual stream of water. Out of this well rises an intolerable stench from the putrefying mass which poisons the air in and around the temple, for it is not permitted to take these offerings out of the well. Around the well is a colonnade of small beautiful pillars, back of which, on the east side, is a seven-foot-high stone statue of a bull consecrated to the god of Mahadeva. Another temple is divided into stalls which contain well-fed sacred animals, such as bulls, cows, goats and birds, all of which are objects of worship of the faithful. This temple was kept more clean than the former, but the bellowing of the animals and the jostling and crowding of the worshipers made the visit to those deities intolerable.