330 TRAVEL, AD VENTURE, AXD SPORT. 



cause cholera is very likely to attack one where 

 pilgrims are collected. I think the pouring it out in 

 drops and the writing on the label impressed him 

 greatly, and he was quite delighted with its heating 

 and exciting effects. He had not left me long before 

 he reappeared and begged for some more of the antrit. 

 This time I gave him a pretty stiff dose. In truth I 

 did not half like the nocturnal visits of this quatd 

 ascetic, with his questionable taste for brandy. He 

 might be an Aghora himself, for all I knew to the 

 contrary a two-legged man-eater ; and certainly his 

 companions were savage enough easily to pass for 

 that. They were not harmless Jains, but worshippers 

 of Siva the Destroyer ; and this demand for brandy 

 was in itself suspicious. Among the Aghoras, as will 

 be seen farther on, " flesh and spirituous liquors con- 

 stitute the diet of the adept." Might not this ancient 

 party be himself an adept, and the " spirituous liquor " 

 he was in search of be wanted only as a preliminary 

 whet to some " flesh " to which he saw his carnivor- 

 ous way ? I asked him if there were any Aghoras 

 aboiit, and he said there were, "there and there," 

 pointing to the jungle below and to the rocks above, 

 but " not here, not here," pointing to his own place. 

 Indeed he was at so much pains to convince me that 

 no Aghoras were " here," as rather to excite suspicion 

 the other way. 



After administering the second dose, I saw no more 

 of the ancient party, and had undisturbed repose till 



