382 DESCRIPTION OF SOME INDIAN IDOLS 



Earth, Heaven ; she was worshipped as the giver of all that is 

 good and beautiful in nature. They imagined another deity, 

 Typhon, the destroying power, the cause of miasma, of exces- 

 sive heat, of storms, of every inordinate action of the ele- 

 ments, whether in excess or defect, and whatever is hurtful to 

 mankind *. In like manner, amongst the Hindus, Vishnu, 

 (that is the pervader), the preserver and giver of life, is a per- 

 sonification of the power of the Supreme Being, which is ex^ 

 erted in preserving the universe. Siva represents the Supreme 

 Being, considered as the destroyer and changer of forms ; and 

 Bramah represents the creating power of the Supreme Being. 

 The goddess Call is the consort of Siva ; she is represented in 

 the figure before us as an emaciated old woman, with a hide- 

 ous countenance, and pendulous breasts. The eye-balls appear 

 like hemispheres in the sockets, by reason of the atrophy of 

 the fat and muscle. The figure has many hands, holding wea- 

 pons of different kinds j a sword, a sacrificing knife, a mace, 

 a bell that announces the sacrifice, a rattle called damaru, 

 shaped like an hour-glass, and a human head. The right 

 hand in front holds a cup of the blood of sacrifices ; a fin- 

 der of the left is placed on the lips. The sole of the left 

 foot is turned upwards, and a round body like a coin is placed 

 on it. Human skulls are in the head-dress, which is sur- 

 mounted by a bird like an owl ; snakes hang down from the 

 head, on each side, in place of hair. A cord on which human 

 skulls are strung, called mund mala, (that is, chaplet of 

 skulls), hangs down over the shoulders. The skulls repre- 

 sent the lapse of ages, by the extinction of successive ge- 

 nerations. Cali is seated on the prostrate figure of a man, 

 typical of the destruction of the world, and of secular time, 



which 



• Plutarchus de Iside et Osiride. 



