230 HINDOO MYTHOLOGY. 



snows. Many, however, in making their way along icy 

 declivities, and by the side of rugged precipices and roaring 

 torrents, either perish outright or lose partially the use of 

 their limbs. Yet a very few proceed still farther, and pen- 

 etrate the passes of the central range till they come in view 

 of the spacious lake of Manasawara, overhung by the 

 snowy cliffs of Caillas. Once to have beheld these sacred 

 waters is considered by the devout as a peculiar felicity. 



Penance and" self-torture are regarded as essential to the 

 attainment of a character for holiness. Not only do devotees 

 boast of renouncing all the decencies and pleasures of life, 

 with all the charms of social intercourse, but they rack 

 their invention to contrive the most painful sufferings. 

 The yogues or fakirs live in the depth of forests, either ab- 

 solutely°naked or having their bodies smeared with ashes 

 and cow-dung, their nails grown to the dimension of huge 

 claws, their beards reaching to an immeasurable length. It 

 is their pride to expose themselves to the tempest when it 

 beats with its utmost fury, and to the sun when darting its 

 intensest rays ; above all, to remain fixed for long periods 

 in constrained and fantastic attitudes. Some hold their 

 hands above their heads till they cannot bring them down 

 again; others clench their fists till the nails penetrate the 

 palm ; and a third class turn their faces towards the sun 

 till they cannot regain their natural position. A certain 

 traveller, who left one of them thus stationed, was aston- 

 ished on returning to India, sixteen years after, to find him 

 in the very same posture. There are even persons who dig 

 a living grave, and remain buried in the earth, with only 

 an aperture for the admission of light and food. It is 

 chiefly by means of such preposterous modes of self-torture 

 that absorption into the essence of Bram or the Supreme 

 Mind, the highest aim of every Hindoo saint, is held to be 

 attainable. 



These absurd austerities were remarked principally by 

 the earlier travellers, and are said to have now become 

 comparatively rare. Yet Mr. Ward, in the year 1806, 

 when visiting the sacred island of Saugor, saw several 

 instances of this irrational devotion. He mentions also an 

 account given by a European gentleman, who in the neigh- 

 bourhood of Calcutta perceived something of human Bhape 

 in a hole in the earth ; but, unable to believe that it wan a 



