314 TRAVEL, ADVENTURE, AND SPORT. 



and slaughter, which was not only inconsistent, but 

 also intensely cowardly and mean on the part of the 

 Jains. 



I can quite understand a doubt arising as to how 

 far my conduct on this occasion was justifiable. If 

 the Jains chose to keep their Amijhara (h'ft.'inlu, and 

 did not invite me to believe in its alleged miraculous 

 properties, what right had I to penetrate to the sacred 

 shrine, and .so to commit what they might, however 

 unwarrantably, regard as an act of sacrilege ] This 

 question of moral casuistry did not occur to me at 

 the moment, so intent was I on seeing the Perspiring 

 Statue ; but so-called sacrilege of the kind is a small 

 matter in India, where, as a personal favour, or on 

 payment of a small sum, priests will often introduce 

 you into the most sacred places. Moreover, if people 

 give out that a statue possesses certain supernatural 

 properties, they lay themselves open to have that 

 tested by lovers of truth, so far as that can be done 

 without violence or fraud. Life is too short, and the 

 strain on the human race is too great, to justify much 

 ceremoniousness on such points. There was certainly 

 no time, however, for entering even on such a dis- 

 cussion, so down I went, preceded by the servitor 

 and followed by Kooshal, leaving V. V. and the Man 

 of Pleasure to keep watch above, lest my acquaint- 

 ance with the Amijhara might be prolonged too far. 

 Both of them, but especially the unfortunate Man of 

 Pleasure, were looking positively cream-coloured by 



