1848.] The Turaee and Outer Mountains of Kumaoon, 573 



westernmost of the three shrines, the only one which I visited ; it is 

 a small, black, domed structure, coated with copper, and placed on the 

 crest of the great mural precipice of sandstone which here faces the 

 south. A little to the south-east, this wall terminates and the moun- 

 tain springs up into a very lofty and remarkable pinnacle of rock, pre- 

 senting a precipitous face to the river, which rolls at its base in a 

 winding chasm of vast depth, the waters generally calm and of a lapis- 

 lazuli tint. The gorge makes a rapid bend here, which brings the 

 current right against the upper end of the cliffs, which perhaps owe 

 their existence to its slow operation. Each shoulder of the rocky 

 pinnacle is consecrated by its temple, the easternmost being the 

 most sacred, and of very difficult access over cliffs and razor-edged 

 ridges. Here the animals are sacrificed, and the sinners properly 

 japanned and fleeced. The Brahmans appropriate the head, and I 

 believe one shoulder of each beast assassinated, with all the cash they 

 can extract, and considerable numbers of cocoa-nuts, the offering of 

 which seems to be a sign connecting the mountain goddess and her 

 rites, with the ocean-loving Kalee of Calcutta. The acme of merit is 

 attained by him whose offering, like Balak's, consists of seven goats. 

 The peak itself is the adytum of the goddess, where none can intrude 

 with impunity : a fukeer who ventured to do so in days of yore was 

 hitched across the river, and found flattened to a pancake in the Sidh 

 Bun of Dotee. 



The classical name of this holy site is Poornagiri, which the Brah- 

 mans render by " complete or entire mountain," an unhappy interpre- 

 tation, since the mountain is cut in two, and one half removed ; a more 

 likely derivation is afforded somewhere by Wilford in the suggestion 

 that the Anna Perenna of the Romans was identical with the Sanscrit 

 Unn-poorna, "The filler with corn," a name of Devee, indicating 

 also by the suppression of the digamma, the origin of Diana (grain 

 goddess) and Demeter (Ceres) Mother-goddess : the Indian goddess 

 being still familiarly known as .MWeand Muha-Maee ; "great mother." 

 She is also adored near Almorah as Putal-devee, Queen of Hell, a 

 function similar to Persephone's. At Nynee Devee on the Sutluj, at 

 Kedarnath, at Syama or Siahee Devee near xllmorah, and probably at 

 Poonagiri, she is entirely clothed in black, and we find that one of 

 Proserpine's epithets was Metampepfos. The most philosophical in- 



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