240 



HAUNTS AND HOBBIES 



The revenues of the monastery were derived partly 

 from lands bequeathed by the Gooroo, but principally 

 from the offerings made by the pilgrims at the great 

 annual fair. This fair was held at the end of the 

 cold season, and was attended by many thousands of 

 persons, chiefly from the Punjaub. All who came 

 made an offering, and those who were rich offered 

 largely. The amount received must have been con- 

 siderable. I have heard it estimated, when the attend- 

 ance was exceptionally large, at a lac of rupees ; but 

 this was a mere guess, for it was a subject on which 

 both the mohunt and his subordinates maintained an 

 extreme reticence. 



The mohunt was a man of about sixty years of age. 

 He was very homely in appearance, quite illiterate, 

 and, notwithstanding his sacerdotal position, not in 

 the least devotional. The spiritual concerns of the 

 monastery he left to the priests ; the secular affairs he 

 mostly allowed the heir apparent to manage. Although 

 on bad terms with his monks, he was greatly liked by 

 the people in general. Indeed, in his amiability and 

 extreme simplicity of character there was something 

 very attractive even to Europeans. 



The heir apparent was less popular. He was better 

 educated than the mohunt, but not in the least more 

 spiritual. He was said — rather an inappropriate occu- 

 pation for a priest — to carry on privately a money- 

 lending concern, and as the interest he charged was 

 high, and he was rigorous in exacting it, the belief 

 did not add to his popularity. He had at one time 

 also acquired the reputation of being too gay ; but 



