The '' Hull/ Footstep.'' 413 



tion consists chiefly of offerings of flowers which are brought up 

 hither, and presented with innumerable genuflections, invoca- 

 tions, and exclamations of " Sadoo,'' which corresponds to 

 the Christian Amen. The impressed foot-print is ascribed by 

 the Buddhists to the last incarnation of Buddha, the gentle 

 hermit Gautama ; while it is regarded by the Brahmins as the 

 footstep of Siva, and by the Mahometans as that of Adam, 

 as being the spot on which the progenitor of the human race 

 stood so long, doing penance after his expulsion from Para- 

 dise, until the Almighty pardoned him. 



This depression, in which only the most unbridled imagina- 

 tion can see any resemblance to the human foot, is about 

 5 feet in length by 2J in breadth, and is set, as it were, 

 in a level stratum of mortar, several inches in height, by 

 six in breadth, shaped to resemble the outline of the human 

 foot. At its anterior extremity, it presents a straight line, 

 on which the five toes are artificially formed by several 

 tolerably thick, narrow crevices, filled with mortar, and about 

 8 or 9 inches in length, which jut inwards, the great toe being 

 on the right or east side, and thus indicating that it is a 

 representation of the left foot. At the heel end the setting of 

 mortar is somewhat narrowed and rounded off". Over the 

 whole affair a wooden temple with balustrades open on all sides, 

 has been erected, which is fastened by iron chains to the rock, 

 and to beams of rhododendron fastened on the N.W. side, out- 

 side the wall, to prevent its being swept away by the storms 

 which, on this lofty, exposed peak, occasionally rage with great 



