A RUN THROUGH KATHIAWAR. 333 



ally lived like wild beasts, realising the story of 

 Xebuchadnezzar, except that they also ate raw 

 and human flesh. One of theso devils came, I 

 think in 1808, to IJaroda, and actually ate the arm 

 of a dead child. Another came into the camp of the 

 Sirsoho of Kathiawar, but he was not suffered to 

 remain, although they covered him with shawls ; and 

 at one of the Jatras at Gi'rnar, one of these Aghoris 

 came to the rock among the pilgrims, who made 

 1>ooja, or worship to him, and clad him with shawls, 

 turbans, rings, &c. He sat for some time, and at 

 length, with an idiotic laugh, sprang up and darted 

 into the forest." Mr Burgess only says that they are 

 supposed to haunt Kalika; and adds, "Without a 

 guide it would have been useless attempting to reach 

 that almost inaccessible point, to which, says common 

 report, if three set out, but two may be expected to 

 return." 



A brief reference has been made to the Aghoras by 

 the late Professor H. H. "Wilson, in his ' Sketch of 

 the Eeligious Sects of the Hindus' (Calcutta, 1846) ; 

 but even that reference I must abbreviate in order to 

 adapt it for polite readers. After alluding to the 

 Paramahansa, the ascetic who becomes " equally in- 

 different to pleasure or pain, insensible of heat or 

 cold, and incapable of satiety or want," the Oxford 

 Professor goes on as follows : " The same profession 

 of worldly indifference characterises the Aghori or 

 Aghorapanthi ; but he seeks occasions for its display, 



