292 PYRARD DE LAVAL'S DESCRIPTION OF BENGAL
they have no clergy among them. There is one of them
named Jean Garie, who is greatly obeyed by the rest;
he commands more than ten thousand men for the King
of Bengal, yet he makes not war against the Portu-
guese, seeing they are friends.
In this land is the great river Ganga, otherwise
called the Ganges, the most renowned in the world.
THE BANK OF THE GANGES AT BENARES.
The natives hold that it comes from the Earthly Para-
dise; their kings have been curious to have its source
discovered, but they have never discovered it, for all
their journeys and expense. Its mouth is at twenty-
three degrees from the equinoctial, toward our pole;
but whether this is the famous Ganges of the ancients,
or that of Canton in China, as some will have it nowa-
days, I leave to the discussion and decision of the
learned in such things; anyhow, the common opinion
of the Portuguese and many others is that this is the
