One could understand that he could lose dignity by it; also self-respect, and nine-tenths of his intelligence.

But the Hindoo changed into an ass wouldn't lose anything, unless you count his religion.

And he would gain much--release from his slavery to two million gods and twenty million priests, fakeers, holy mendicants, and other sacred bacilli; he would escape the Hindoo hell; he would also escape the Hindoo heaven.

These are advantages which the Hindoo ought to consider; then he would go over and die on the other side.
Benares is a religious Vesuvius.

In its bowels the theological forces have been heaving and tossing, rumbling, thundering and quaking, boiling, and weltering and flaming and smoking for ages.