282 BOMBAY DUCKS 
names, nor do I remember the why and the wherefore 
of the punishment inflicted upon them by Siva. But 
what matters thisp Are not dates and facts but the 
dry bones of history? Let us have the flesh and blood 
of myth and tradition and leave the dry bones to 
others. 
We are told that the Conjeeveram vultures are very 
aged ; to be, for once, exact, they are twenty or thirty 
hundred thousand years old—more or less; but their 
eyes are not dim, and they have the invaluable gift of 
feeling the presence of a sinner. When a sin-stained 
human being approaches the portals of the temple, 
they refuse to show themselves. This, taken in con- 
nexion with the fact that thousands of men have seen 
these sacred birds, says much for the moral condition of 
the Madras Presidency. 
