THE ABORIGINAL TRIBES. 173 



Let the devotee make a figure of the sun on a cloth and take 

 two flags, a club, and a chawar * in his hands, and proceed 

 joyously with music to the rock. Whoever shall boldly cast 

 himself down and die, will be married to a Gandharva. 

 But if he fall faintheartedly his lot will be in hell. Whoso- 

 ever turns back again in terror, each step that he takes shall 

 be equivalent to the guilt of killing a Brahman ; but he who 

 boldly casts himself over, each step that he takes is equal in 

 merit to the performance of a sacrifice. Let no Brahman cast 

 himself from the rock. A devotee who has broken his vows, 

 a parricide, or one who has committed incest, shall by thus 

 sacrificing himself become sinless." 



In 1822, a European officer of our Government witnessed the 

 death of almost the last victim to Kal Bhairava at this shrine. 

 The island then belonged to a native State (Sindia), and our 

 Government had not then begun to interfere with such bloody 

 rites. The political officer who wrote the account of it was 

 therefore unable to prevent it by force. I came on the descrip- 

 tion a few years ago in MS., hidden away among many other 

 forgotten papers in the Government record room of the Nimar 

 district. The concluding portion may be interesting, as per- 

 haps the only account on record, by an eye-witness, of such 

 an occurrence. After narrating how he vainly urged every 

 argument on the youth to dissuade him from his design, the 

 writer proceeds to relate how he accompanied him nearly up 

 to the fatal rock. " I took care," he says, " to be present at 

 an early hour at the representation of Bhyroo (Bhairava), a 

 rough block of basalt smeared with red paint, before which he 

 must necessarily present and prostrate himself, ere he mounted 

 to the lofty pinnacle whence to spring on the idol. Ere long 

 he arrived, preceded by rude music. He approached the 



* A yak's tail used for fanning, &c. 



