TILE ABORIGINAL TRIBES. 175 



dispute with him the right to quench his thirst at the 

 watering-place in the Denwa river. ^^ Those who come to 

 a place like this for pleasure must be few indeed. 



On my way back to Puchmurree, as I passed through 

 the assembled multitudes, many of them were starting, 

 after a dip of purification in the holy stream, to scale 

 the heights that contain the shrine. My way also lay 

 up the pilgrims' pass ; and as I went I passed through 

 numerous groups of them slowly toiling up the steep 

 ascent of nearly two thousand feet. Both men and 

 women formed the throng, the former stripped to the 

 waist and girded with a clean white cloth, the horizontal 

 marks of red and yellow which distinguished them as 

 worshippers of Siva being newly imprinted on their 

 arms and foreheads. The women retained their usual 

 costume ; but the careful veiling of face and figure, 

 attended to on common occasions by high caste ladies, 

 was a good deal relaxed in the excitement of the 

 occasion (and besides, were they not on their way to 

 be absolved of all sin ?) ; and not inconsiderable reve- 

 lations of the charms of many of the good dames, of 

 light brown skins and jet black eyes, were permitted by 

 the wayward behaviour of their flowing robes as they 

 turned to stare in [astonishment at the salieb and his 

 strangely-attired attendants pegging away past them up 

 the hill with double-barrelled rifles on their shoulders. 

 All were talking and laughing gaily — now and then 

 shouting out "Jae, Jae, Mahadeo ! " (victory to the 

 Great God). The cry raised by each as he took the first 

 step on the hill was taken up by all the forward groups, 

 till it died away in a confused hum among the crowd 



* As I went to Motiir on this occasion I saw the track of a tiger 

 where the pilgrims drink. They had not then arrived, of course. 



