176 THE HIGHLANDS OF CEXTEAL INDIA. 



who had ah'eady reached the shrine, far up in the 

 bowels of the hill. Gloom and terror are the last senti- 

 ments in the religious feeling of the Hindii, even when 

 approaching the shrine of the deity who has been called 

 the Destroyer in their trinity of gods. It is considered 

 sufficiently meritorious to perform such a pilgrimage as 

 this at all, without further adding to its misery by 

 wailing and gnashing of teeth. They believe it will do 

 them good, because the priests say so ; but they do not 

 think it necessary to weep over it, and " boil their 

 peas " when they can. But at the best it is a hard 

 clamber for those unused to toil. The old and decrepit, 

 the fat trader, and the delicate high-bred woman, have 

 to halt and rest often and again as they labour up the 

 hill. The path was a zig-zag ; and at every turn some 

 convenient stone or rocky ledge had been worn smooth 

 by these restings of generations of pilgrims. 



For a long way before the shrine was reached the 

 path was lined on either side by rows of religious men- 

 dicants and devotees, spreading before them open cloths 

 to receive alms, clothed in ashes picked out by the white 

 horizontal paint marks of the followers of Siva, with 

 girdle of twisted rope and long felted locks, hollow-eyed 

 and hideous, jingliug a huge pair of iron tongs with 

 movable riugs on them, and shouting out the praises of 

 Mahadeo. The clang of a large fine-toned bell and the 

 hum of a multitude of voices reached our ears, as, sur- 

 mounting the last shoulder of the hill, we entered the 

 narrow valley of the shrine. A long dim aisle, betwixt 

 high red sandstone cliffs, and canopied by tall mango 

 trees, led up to the cave. The roots of the great 

 mangoes, of wild plantains, and of the sacred Chumpun,'''' 

 * MicJielia Chanrpara. 



