290 Lieut. -Colonel Tod on the Religions Establishments ofMeivar. 



midst of myriads of combatants ; who gave beatitude to the courtesan* who, 

 as the wall crushed her, pronounced the name of " Rama," will not with- 

 hold it from him who has quitted the world and its allurements that he may 

 live in his presence, be fed by the food prepared for himself, and yield up 

 his last sigh invoking the name of Heui. There are not less than two hun- 

 dred individuals at this time, most of whom, stipulating merely for food, 

 raiment, and funeral rites, have abandoned all to pass their days in devotion 

 at the shrine of Kaniya : men of every condition, Rajput, merchant, and 

 mechanic ; and where sincerity of devotion is the sole expiation, and gifts 

 outweigh penance, they must feel the road to futurity as smooth as any 

 which leads to the haven of hope. 



The dead stock of Crishna's shrine is augmented chiefly by " those who 

 hold life unstable as the dew-drop on the lotus ;" " brittle as a blade of 

 grass ;" and riches " as a vain shadow;" and who are happy to barter •' the 

 wealth of Ormuz and of Ind" for the intercessional prayers of the high- 

 priest, and his passport to Heri-pur, the heaven of Heri. From the banks 

 of the Indus to the mouths of the Ganges, from the coasts of the Peninsula 

 to the shores of the Red Sea, the gifts of gratitude or of fear are lavishly 

 poured in ; and though the unsettled aspect of the last half century cur- 

 tailed the transmission of the more bulky, but least valuable benefactions, 

 it little affected the bills of exchange from the successful sons of commerce, 

 or the legacies of the dead. The safe arrival of a galleon from Sofala or 

 Arabia produced at least as much to the shrine as to the insurance- 

 office, for Kaniya is the Saint Nicholas of the Hindu navigator, as was 

 Apollo to the Grecian and Celtic sailors, who purchased his charmed 

 arrows from the priestess to calm the troubled sea.f A storm accordingly 



of this manly chieftain, who had often fearlessly encountered the foe in battle, filled with tears 

 as, holding out his hand, he said, " At least you listen to our griefs, and speak the language of 

 friendship. Say but the word, and you may command the services of twenty thousand Ra/ttores." 

 There is, indeed, no human being more susceptible of excitement, and, under it, of being led to 

 any desperate purpose, whether for good or for evil, than the Rajput. 



* Chund, the bard, gives this instance of the compassionate nature ofCRiSHNA, taken, as well 

 as the former, from the Mahahharat. 



f Near the town of Avranches, on the coast of Normandy, is a rock called Mont St. Michel, 

 in ancient times sacred to the Gallic or Celtic Apoli.o, who was called Belenus ; a name which 

 the author from whom we quote observes, " certainly came from the East, and proves that the 

 " littoral provinces of Gaul were visited by the Phcenicians." " A college of Druidical priestesses 



