THE ABORIGINAL TRIBES. 171 



at these Sivite shrines includes rites or mysteries of an ob- 

 scene character. I believe this to be wholly groundless. No 

 such thing could take place, here at any rate, except in public 

 among a dense crowd ; and neither here nor at any other of the 

 many shrines that I have visited have I either seen or heard of 

 such a practice. It is undoubted that the small sects who 

 worship the Sdkti, or female power of Sivd, do indulge in such 

 obscenity. Their unholy rites are not, however, practised at 

 the public shrines, but in the dark seclusion of their secret 

 meeting-places ; and their existence I believe is wholly un- 

 known to the great majority even of the ordinary followers of 

 Siva. 



There is one object which will attract attention near this 

 shrine of Siva, and which will receive a remarkable explana- 

 tion. Projecting from the edge of a sheer and lofty cliff 

 above the sacred brook is hung a small white flag. Innocent- 

 looking enough it is ; but it marks a spot where, " in the 

 days that are forgotten," human victims hurled themselves 

 over the rock as sacrifices to the bloody Kali, and Kal- 

 Bhairava, the consort and son of Siva the Destroyer. The 

 British Government, which cannot be accused of timidity in 

 forbidding so-called religious customs which are contrary to 

 humanity, has long since put a stop to these bloody rites. 

 For centuries, however, they were a regular part of the show 

 at these annual pilgrimages, both here and at other principal 

 shrines of Siva. They are connected with the worship of the 

 terrible mythical developments of the god above mentioned 

 forms which have, with some probability, been conjectured to 

 be aboriginal deities imported into the Brahminical pantheon. 



Far to the west of Puchmurree, in the district of Nimar, is 

 a rocky island in the Narbada river called M^ndhdtta, on 

 which is situated the shrine of Siva called Omkar one of 



