1855.] Account of a visit to the Shrine of Sakhi Sar war. 331 



to the west, which are perfectly bare, and to all appearance different 

 to any I had ever seen, inasmuch as they seemed, from their sin- 

 gular abruptness, to be almost inaccessible. About two miles dis- 

 tant from Widor we came upon stones and pebbles, and a peculiar 

 clay which from its great hardness might be mistaken for stone. 

 This is mere debris from the hills forming as it were a belt of some 

 eight or ten miles in breadth that joins and runs parallel to the 

 rich alluvial soil of the Indus, which on the right or western bank 

 is about twenty miles broad on the average. 



We now passed the remains of a well which that popular ruler — 

 Dewan Sawan Mall, Nazim of Miiltan — attempted to sink for the 

 convenience of the visitors at the Meld or Fair, but without success, 

 having found it impracticable after employing workmen on it for 

 about a year. It now appears like the remains of a tank. Some 

 four miles from the end of our journey, to the left of the road, there 

 is a platform of stone and lime, built by one of the votaries of 

 Sakhi Sarwar, round an aged tree. It is said that this tree remains 

 in leaf for twelve years at a time, and for a similar period bare and 

 blighted. The ninth year of its blight has passed, and in another 

 three, they say, it will again put forth leaves. By all accounts, how- 

 ever, it appears that the tree has been dried up in this state for the 

 last fifteen years or more. The trunk contains several iron nails 

 or pegs, which have been driven in by deluded people having some 

 wish to be fulfilled. It is usual to drive in a nail one year, and the 

 year after, if the desired object has been acquired, to come and 

 draw it out again. The Hindus have also plastered over the trunk 

 with red lead in the same manner as they are in the habit of anoint- 

 ing their gods. When they reach the tree they make their pros- 

 trations to it calling out the name " Laali ivallah"* not Sakhi Sar- 

 war ; for they say that four rubies are suspended over his tomb, but 

 they are not visible to mortal eyes. They continue to cry out to 

 the Saint by this name of Laali wallah, and singing their hymns 

 proceed towards his Shrine. 



On leaving Widor, the sky away in the north-west was dark and 

 over-cast, and threatened rain, which came on with violence, shortly 

 after the sun set and attended with gusts of wind, and vivid flashes 



* Laali wallah — from J[*J — a ruby, and &)\j — a master, possessor, etc. 



2 x 



