[126] There is a vast difference between a _vojun_ and a _jalpan_ dinner. If there be a thousand guests at the latter, at the most there would be only three hundred at the former, as none but the nearest relatives and friends will condescend to take rice (_vath_), which is almost akin to one and the same clanship, whereas in a _jalpan_, not only the members of the same caste but even those of the inferior order are tacitly permitted to partake of the same entertainment without tarnishing the honor of the aristocratic classes. The following anecdote will, I hope, prove interesting:-- At the marriage procession of a washerman, confessedly very low in the category of caste, two _Kayastas_ (writer caste) joined it on the road in the hope of getting a hearty _Jalpan_ dinner; but lo! when, after the nuptial rites were over, rice and curries were brought out for the guests, the two _Kayastas_, who sat down with the rest of the company, tried to escape unnoticed, because if they ate rice at a washerman's they were sure to lose their caste, but the host would not let them go away without dinner. They at last spoke the truth, asked forgiveness and were then allowed to leave the house. To such disappointments unfortunate intruders are sometimes subjected. [127] In the sacred city of Benares vast sums of money have been sunk in building Ghauts with magnificent flights of steps stretching from the bank to the very edge of the water at ebb-tide, affording great convenience to the people both for religious and domestic purposes, but the strong current of the stream in the months of August, September and October, has played a sad havoc with the masonry works. Scarcely a single Ghaut exists in a complete state of preservation. XXI. SUTTEE, OR THE IMMOLATION OF HINDOO WIDOWS.