140 THE HIGHLANDS OF CENTEAL INDIA 



and devotees, spreading before them open clotlis to receive 

 alms, clotlied in ashes picked out by tbe white horizontal 

 paint marks of the followers of Siva, with girdle of twisted 

 rope and long felted locks, hollow-eyed and hideous, jing- 

 ling a huge pair of iron tongs with movable rings on them, 

 and shouting out the praises of Mahadeo. The clang of a 

 large fine-toned bell and the hum of a multitude of voices 

 reached our ears, as, surmounting the last shoulder of the 

 hill, we entered the narrow valley of the shrine. A long 

 dim aisle, betwixt high red sandstone clifEs, and canopied 

 by tall mango trees, led up to the cave. The roots of the 

 great mangoes, of wild plantains, and of the sacred Chum- 

 pun,^ were fixed in cracks in the pavement of the rock, 

 worn smooth by the feet of the pilgrims, and moist and 

 slippery with .the waters of the stream that issues from 

 the cave. 



The cave itself opens through a lofty natural arch in 

 a vertical sandstone clifi; and for about three hundred 

 feet runs straight into the bowels of the hiU. It is without 

 doubt natural ; and a considerable stream of clear cold 

 water issues from a cleft at its further end. Here is set 

 up the little conical stone (hngam) which represents the 

 god, and attracts all these pilgrims once a year. No 

 temple made with hands, no graven image, nothing of the 

 usual pomp and ceremony of Brahminical worship, adorns 

 this forest shrine. Outside on a platform a Brahman sits 

 chanting passages in praise of the god, out of the local 

 Slvite gospel (the Rewa Khanda) ; and a little way off an 

 old woman tolls the great bell at intervals. But within 

 there is no oflB.ciating priest, no one but a retainer of the 

 aboriginal chief whose right it has been from time im- 

 memorial to act as custodian of the shrine, and to receive 

 the offerings of the pilgrims. No pilgrim ever brings more 

 up the hill with him than he means to offer ; for he may 

 take back nothing — ^his last rupee, and even the orna- 

 ments of the women, must be left on the shrine of the 

 god. Before passing into the cave the pilgrim leaves with 

 the Brahmans outside (along with a sufficient douceur) his 

 pair of small earthen vessels for the receipt of holy water. 

 ^ MicheUa Champaca, 



