A RUN THROUGH KATHIAWAR. 327 



that so many of them, and even women, make the 

 ascent. 



This peak is sacred to Neminatha, the twenty- 

 second Ti'rthankara, and is associated also with his 

 first convert the King Datatri. Keminath himself 

 was of royal family, and, according to the legend, in 

 his last incarnation, after 300 years of sinful worldly 

 life, he spent 700 years on Gi'rnar as an ascetic before 

 he finally obtained emancipation and entered Xirvana 

 from the summit of this very peak, on which occasion 

 he left the prints of his feet on the rock, and which 

 still remain, though a sceptic might be inclined to 

 imagine that these footprints had been carved by the 

 hands of man. 



On the very top of this rock-needle, I found an 

 old naked devotee guarding the sacred foot - prints, 

 though he was not a Jain, but a Sivite ; and, on 

 taking him into my confidence as to ascending Kalika, 

 ho said that he and some other ascetics had a place 

 down below at the foot of the Dread Mother, whew 

 I coidd sleep in. safety, and that some of them might 

 accompany me in the ascent, if I chose to persist in 

 it, which he did not advise. This place was a sort 

 of shelf in the rocks at the foot of the Jtaen Mata, 

 and above an immense basin of jungle which is said 

 to be infested by Aghoras. It has some trees, a small 

 place of worship Avith a shrine, two or three small 

 stone houses or huts, and about fifty square yards of 

 level ground. If the naked ascetic on the top of the 



