THE ABORIGINAL TEIBES. 167 



the rank jungle, and here and there scaling precipitous rocks, 

 where the feet of countless pilgrims have worn steps in the 

 stone. Young and old have to track out these paths on foot ; 

 and all the terrors of pestilence, wild beasts, and the demons 

 and spirits of the waste surround the approach in their excited 

 imaginations. Arrived at the foot of the holy hill, the pilgrim 

 finds neither jollity nor anything more than the barest require- 

 ments of existence awaiting him. His food is dry parched 

 grain, his couch on the naked earth, during his sojourn in the 

 presence of Mahdeva\ Should he be among the first to arrive, 

 the tiger may chance to 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 hori- 

 zontal 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 

 revelations of the charms of many of the good dames, of light 

 brown skins and jet-black eyes, were permitted by the wayward 



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

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



