Ootacamund and Anglo-Indian Life 329 



monkeys ; and in classic Indian times the monkeys 

 on one side of the road were so hostile to those upon 

 the other side, that none would venture to pass from 

 one to the other without a risk of being strangled. 



It is only natural among such scenery to find the 

 inhabitants overawed by Nature, ignorant, superstitious, 

 their religion inspired by terror, their imaginations 

 inflamed by vague and uncontrolled impulses. There 

 were temples everywhere : the tall towers of Siva, 

 " the god of the sensuous fire that folds all Nature 

 in forms divine " ; and of Vishnu ; most of all we 

 came across the gods of the ignorant masses, images 

 of demons, snakes, horses, elephants, distorted 

 horrors, 



This I saw when the rites were done, 

 And the lamps were dead, and the gods alone, 

 And the grey snake coiled on the altar stone, 

 Ere I fled from a fear that I could not see, 

 And the gods of the East made mouths at me. 



On other little wayside shrines were strewn rose- 

 leaves ; sometimes the marble was stained with goats' 

 and cocks' blood ; look where you would there was 

 rank superstition, 



The nations have builded them temples, and in them have 



imaged their gods, 

 Of the temples, the nature around them has fashioned and 



moulded the plan, 

 And the gods take their life and their being from the visions 



and longings of man. 



The road soon began to wind upwards ; we crossed 



