312 NARRATIVE OF A 



(lestal of the trident: from this, a narrow ridge leads 

 to another hill, something- higher: and in this man- 

 ner the hills here are mostly connected ; the highest 

 being generally of a conical form. They are very 

 thinly clad with vegetable productions: the trees are 

 few, and small ; and the grass, at this season of the 

 year, parched up. In some j^arts of the hills, how- 

 ever, where the aspect is more northerly, the grass is 

 more abundant, finer, and seemingly much liked by 

 the cattle. 



On the top of Chamlnee, a Bramen is stationed to 

 receive contributions from visitors during the con- 

 tinuance of the Mela : the produce, he says, uponau 

 average, is for that time, about ten rupees per day. 



This Mela, or fair, is an annual assemblage of 

 Hindus, to bathe, for a certain number of days, in the 

 >vaters of thj Ganges, at this consecrated spot. The 

 period of ablution is that of the Sun's entering Aries; 

 "vvhich, according to the Hindu computation, being 

 reckoned from a fixed point, now happens about 

 twenty days later than the vernal equinox. It ac- 

 cordingly fell on the evening of the 8th of Jpril. 

 But every twelfth year, when Jupiter is in Aquarius, 

 at the time of the Sun's entering Aries, the concourse 

 of people is greatly augmented. The present is 

 one of those periods, and the multitude collected 

 liere, on this occasion, may, I think, with mode- 

 ration, be computed at two and a half millions of 

 souls*. Although the performance of a religious 

 dut}' is their primary o[)ject, yet, many avail them- 



This estimation may appear enormous ; and it tlierefore becomes 

 necessary to give some account of the grounds on which it was 

 formed. Small sums are paid by all, at the different watering places ; 

 and the collectors at each of these, in rendering their accounts to the 

 M'.'hnnts, who regulate the jxJice, are obliged to form as exact a 

 register, as a place of so much bustle will admit of. From the prin- 

 cij)al of these otfices, the number of the multitude is found out, pro- 

 baljly within a few thousands. Tht Goossei/u, on ' whose informa- 

 tion tJie calculation was foimed, had access to these records j and the 

 result, as delivered above, was thought more likely to be under, than 

 over tlie Uiuh. 



selves 



