316 TEAVEL, ADVENTURE, AND SPOET. 



give any sufficient reason for it) that they were images 

 of Mahavi'ra. 



Indeed there was not much time for a close inspec- 

 tion. Both Kooshal and the servitor of the temples 

 were urging me to ascend immediately ; and as they 

 had aided me so far, I felt that it would not have been 

 right, and much less considerate, to have resisted their 

 request. Any long delay in the sanctum would in- 

 evitably have suggested the idea that some process of 

 sacrilege was going on, and so I thought it best to 

 content myself with a hasty but close examination of 

 the sacred excavation. On ascending to the surface I 

 found that the Arab guard had been kept in the out- 

 side of the temple, in the courtyard of that of Kemi- 

 natha, and that three or four of the Jain priests were 

 awaiting my ascent, indignant enough, but disposed 

 to treat the affair quietly. 



There was no perspiration 011 this statue of Parash- 

 vanatha when I saw it ; but it is extremely likely to 

 perspire in certain circumstances. On inquiring par- 

 ticularly into that point, I was told that its perspiring 

 qualities were specially manifest in the great season of 

 pilgrims to Girnar that is to say, in April and May 

 towards the end of the hot season, when the outer 

 air is laden with moisture. Little of that outer air 

 may descend into the Amijharp excavations, for the 

 tendency of hot air is to ascend ; but a certain amount 

 of moist hot air will be brought into it by attraction, 

 and the moisture in it will be at once condensed, with 



