540 SURVEY OF THE GANGES. 



a certain unaccountabk disorder, with which he had long been troubled, 

 and which he innocently ascribed to the rarefa(5lion of the atmosphere ; 

 but it was sufficiently evident, that the shrine of his deity was not the 

 only one at which he had been paying his devotion. 



The number of pilgrims who have visited Bhadri-JVdtli this year, is 

 calculated at forty-five or fifty thousand ; the greater part of these, Fakirs ^ 

 who came from the most remote quarters of India. All these people 

 assemble at Haridwar; and, as soon as the fair is concluded, take their de- 

 parture for the holy land ; the road they follow is by Devapraydga to Ru^ 

 drapraydga ; whence they strike off to Ceddr-Kdt'h, This place is situ* 

 ated about fourteen or fifteen miles in direct distance to the W. N. W. of 

 Bhadn-JSTdt'h, but the intermediate hills are inaccessible from the snowj 

 and the travellers are obliged to make ^ circuitous route, of eight or nine 

 days, by the way of Jdsi mat'ha, hither. The r£>ad to Cedar is much 

 obstro.6led ; and, in many places, leads overbeds of snow, extending for 

 several ipiles. Two or three hundred people are said to have perished this 

 year, on the journey ; having fallen vi^lims to the inclemency of thjis 

 cliraate, and the fatigues they had to undergo. 



By the time the pilgrimage to Ccddr-Kdfh is completed, Bhadn-Ndt'h 

 is ready to receive visitors ; who, having paid their devotions, return by 

 the road of JSTandpraydgOr and Carnpraydgd, vs/hich conclude the grand 

 circle of pilgrimage,. ■ 



The ceremonies which Hindus undergo here, differ in no respe6l frora 

 the customs usually oberved at other places of holy ablution. After 

 washing away their impurities, the men whose fathers are dead, and 

 those of the female sex who are widows, submit to the operation of ton- 

 sure, which' may be considered an acl of mourning and of purification; 



