232 Notes on Pilgrimages in the Country of Cashmere. [No. 4, 



with those detailed in No. 10, pilgrimage, but as they are noted as 

 separate, I so transcribe them. I may mention that the notes from 

 which the above pilgrimages bave been taken were made fourteen years 

 ago, and in a few instances may contain inaccuracies, as my almost 

 total ignorance of Sanskrit may have led me to misunderstand in 

 some few instances the translator, who read to me in Persian his own 

 versions of the Brahminical fables. For myself I confess to an utter 

 distaste for this especial branch of research. The Hindu religion, as 

 interpreted by its wretched representatives of the present day in 

 Cashmere, seems a base alloy, and a corrupt and paltry veneering 

 over the fables (themselves absurd enough) of the later Vedas.. 



The original grand and pure moral code of Menu seems quite lost 

 sight of ; — priestcraft and abject superstition have of course stepped in 

 and vitiated fables already sufficiently gross and material in their 

 symbolical Vedantism ; whilst the petty ceremonial customs and 

 observances of modern Hinduism can only excite ridicule and disgust 

 in the mind of the student. I have long desisted from the uninviting 

 pursuit, and it is with much distaste that I have now transcribed, 

 from notes and data long since collected, these few details, which, 

 however, I was unwilling should altogether be lost, as they may tend 

 to guide abler scholars to deeper research than I was ever able to 

 make; and possibly in some of the localities alluded to, inscriptions, 

 or other fragments of interest to the Society might be found. Apo- 

 logizing for the fragmentary character of this paper, I will now bring 

 it to a close, as the subject has been, as far as I am concerned, ex- 

 hausted. 



