332 TKAVEL, AD VENTURE, AND SPORT. 



state that the unfrequented passes of the hills are 

 inhabited by cannibals, whom, curiously enough, 

 they entitle ogres. I could not discover how the 

 belief or the word had originated." It is, however, 

 not in the passes of the hills, but in a part of Girnar 

 itself and of its jungly basins in which Aghoras 

 still linger. When Mrs Postans remarked that they 

 were curiously enough called " ogres," it was evidently 

 a form of the word Aghora which she heard. The 

 stricter form, I believe, of the title of the two-legged 

 man-eater is Aghori, but he is usually called Aghora 

 on Girnar ; and this is frequently abbreviated to 

 Aghor, pronounced Ughor, which latter sound is 

 almost precisely the same as ogre. Very likely our 

 word is derived from it, but I have not gone suffi- 

 ciently into that point. 



Colonel Tod, on his visit to Girnar in 1822, heard 

 a good deal about the Aghoras, but it is not certain 

 that he saAV any, though on the top of Goruknath he 

 met a very wild maniacal ascetic whom he took to be 

 an Aghora, and who may have been one of the com- 

 munity beside whom I slept. The Colonel wanted 

 much to ascend Kalika ; but a sudden attack of 

 lameness which of course was ascribed to the in- 

 tervention of the dread goddess prevented him from 

 even making the attempt. Mr Williams, a friend 

 who was with him, made to him the following 

 statement on the subject : " When I was in 

 Ivathiawar there were three or four men who liter- 



