290 TRAVEL, ADVENTURE, AND SPORT. 



beat of . drum. Such, briefly, is the substance of 

 Ashoka's edicts ; and the reference to the Egyptian 

 and other Western rulers not only fixes a date in 

 the third century before Christ, but also, it may be 

 argued, would seem to point out that Biidhism was 

 known and tolerated in Egypt, Syria, and Greece in 

 the third century before the Christian era. This, it 

 is obvious, is a point of extreme importance in the 

 history of religion ; but, unfortunately, the rock has 

 been injured, and the inscription has been partially 

 destroyed just where it promises to throw light on 

 this interesting subject. 



In our way up the great precipice of Gi'rnar, we 

 came upon various devotees, one of whom, I was 

 assured, exposed himself almost entirely naked to 

 summer's heat and winter's cold, and was even to be 

 found at night in the same exposed situation and 

 scanty costume of ashes. He looked as if it might all 

 be true ; and on my expressing surprise at the hard- 

 ships he underwent, he replied, " What does it matter 

 to a poor old man like me, who only seeks for 

 deliverance 1 " If you want to find devotees, Gi'rnar 

 is the place to look for them ; and they are all nearly, 

 and some of them entirely, in what is delicately 

 termed acliailakya, or " state of unclothedness." 

 Notwithstanding its bare appearance from below, 

 there is a good deal of thick wood in its clefts, and 

 there they are to be found demanding alms for living 

 in such a jungle, or too worn and wretched and 



