A RUN THROUGH KATHIAWAR. 319 



several of the Jain priests were in the concealed 

 temple. They looked very serious, but had kept the 

 Arab guard outside in the courtyard of the temple of 

 Xerninath, and sent these away before they allowed 

 me to go out. The whole matter promised to go off 

 very quietly, and I returned to my own quarters with- 

 out thinking much about it. But in the course of 

 the afternoon a good deal of excitement got up in the 

 Khengar Mehel, and among the pilgrims residing 

 there and encamped in its neighbourhood. The Arab 

 guard had, so far as I could judge, been rather amused 

 by the occurrence ; for, being Muhammadans, they of 

 course disliked the sanctity of an idol ; but at the 

 same time they were bound, in accordance with the 

 conditions of their being there at all, to protect it 

 from my visit. But they, and still more the priests, 

 were rather puzzled what to do when I had actually 

 visited the sacred shrine, and came out of it quietly, 

 as if I had very much admired it, and had conferred 

 a favour upon them by visiting it. They could not 

 well murder me for a visit to Parashvanatha, which 

 flowed naturally from the circumstances ; and that 

 would have been much too serious, and, as regarded 

 themselves, too destructive a thing to have been 

 attempted, or even to have been seriously thought of. 

 !Xot the less, but even more, on that account were 

 they placed in an extremely unpleasant position. 

 Here was the sacred Amijhara, which political agents, 

 governors, and antiquarians had desired to see in 



