THE ABORIGINAL TRIBES. 173 



Several other roads lead in from the south, all of which 

 are rugged and difficult, and are traversed in fear and 

 trembling hy the pilgrims. About this time I crossed 

 over from Puchmurree to visit the opposite plateau of 

 Motiir, which was also at that time under examination 

 as a possible site for a sanitarium in these provinces. 

 The Denwa valley lay between, necessitating a descent 

 and ascent of about 2,500 feet each way. On my return 

 from Motiir on the 26th of February I found the little 

 plain in the Denwa valley below the shrine, through 

 which my road lay, swarming with the pilgrims, some 

 forty thousand of whom had collected in this lonely 

 valley in a few days, and were now crowding up into 

 the ravine where the cave is situated — a ravine through 

 w^hich a week or two before 1 had tracked a herd of bison ! 

 Most of these annual gatherings of pilgrims are, to 

 the majority of the Hindus who attend them, very much 

 what race-meetings and cattle-shows are to the more 

 practical Englishman — an episode in their hard-worked 

 and rather colourless existence, in which a nominal 

 object of little interest in itself is made the excuse for 

 an "outing," the amusements of which chiefly consist in 

 bothies for the sale of all sorts of miscellaneous articles, 

 universal gossiping for the elders, and peep-shows and 

 whirligigs for the younger members. It is surprising 

 how the familiar features of a fair at home come out, in 

 an oriental costume, at these so-called religious gather- 

 ings. The cow with five legs and the performing billy- 

 goat adequately represent the woolly horse and the 

 dancing bear of our childhood. The acrobats are there 

 to the life, tying themselves into identical knots we 

 loved so welk The begging gipsy appears in the 

 fantastic Jogee. Ginger-pop and oranges are even 



