184/.] Notes of an Excursion to the Pindree Glacier. 233 



cases however were more numerous on our return, and it is certain the 

 mountaineers look on a residence here with dread. 



At the junction of the two rivers are a couple of stone temples of 

 Mahadeo, where Bruhma also is adored sub invocatione Bagesur, San- 

 scrit Vageeswur, the Lord of Speech, and gives his name to the town. 

 There is an inscribed slab at one of these temples, in a character not 

 seemingly very ancient ; the import I understand is given in one of the 

 Journals of the Society. The brahmuns have a legend that the Sur- 

 joo could not find its way through the mountains till the present chan- 

 nel, a devious one enough, was opened by a Rishi ; ever since which 

 time bathing here is justly considered nearly as efficacious in removing 

 sin as the pilgrimage to Budreenarain itself.* "Bagesur" was per- 

 haps in the first instance indebted for this title to the Tigers which 

 abound in the valley ; the brahmuns give both etymologies ; these 

 brutes (the tigers), roam up as high as Sooring, but from numerous en- 

 quiries I am induced to believe that Bishop Heber was misinformed 

 when he was told that they habitually frequent the snows. They are ex- 

 tremely destructive in the district of Gungolee, along the Surjoo, S. E. 

 of this, where during the present autumn and winter, 25 persons are 

 said to have been destroyed ; this with an equal number of victims in the 

 Bhumouree Pass, leading from the plains to Almorah, forms a serious 

 item in the Kumaoon bills of mortality, and goes to prove that the 

 Mosaic penalty of blood for blood is no longer in force ; indeed a cele- 

 brated writer observes that "the lions, the tigers, and the house of 

 Judah" scarce ever observed this covenant. The mountaineers are 

 firmly persuaded that the worst tigers are men, who transform themselves 

 into this shape by means of the black art, the better to indulge their 

 malice, envy, and love of a flesh diet. The superstition reminds one 

 of the lycanthropy of the old Greeks, and the Louf-garon of the French 

 in modern days. 



* It is an extraordinary instance of an attempted fusion of the creeds of Brahma 

 and Muhammed, that the brahmuns of Bagesur in relating- this legend, identified 

 Muhadeo with " Baba Adam," and his wife Parvu tee with " Mama Hhuwa," or 

 Mother Eve. Th y were probably indebted for this curious association to the cir- 

 cumstance of "Adim" denoting "first" in Sanscrit, so that " Baba Adam" is 

 " First Father." Had they selected Brahma, who as Viraj, divided himself into 

 male and female fur thcv production of mankind, tie parallel would have been still 

 closer. 



