A LITTLE KNOWN rKOVINCE OF THE INDIAN EMPIRE. 127 



fill repair in thousands from all parts of India. The priests- 

 draw their wealth from the pilgrims and send emissaries 

 (pandas) to beguile the people to visit the shrine, that will 

 purify them from sin, which is ceremonially performed by their 

 being struck with a broom, as they enter the lion gate of the- 

 temple. These pilgrim hunters, who are many thousands irn 

 number, penetrate into every village of Lower Bengal and even 

 into remote parts of North India. They are welcomed every- 

 where: the women, whose lives are secluded and monotonous hh 

 the extreme, are delighted to hear of the holy places of their 

 religion and of the great v;orld beyond the few villages to- 

 which their steps have been confined. In search of the- 

 promised remission of their sins, and not uninfluenced by the- 

 prospect of new sights, a few men and many women, nearly all 

 middle-aged or old, accompany the pilgrim hunter on his 

 return journey, which until recently, for tlie great majority o£ 

 the pilgrims, involved at least 200 miles on foot by road, and 

 frequently double or treble that distance. 



The festival occurs during the rainy season, and the mortality 

 on the road was frightful; cholera seldom left their track,. 

 Some of the more ardent of the pilgrims measure the way by 

 throwing themselves full length on the ground, marking the- 

 road with an iron pin so far as their arms can stretch, ancB 

 recommencing with their feet at this mark. I have talked to 

 many men, who were adopting this mode of progression, and 

 found them quite cheerful and satisfied under the penance, if 

 that is the vi^ht name for it. One man was said to have done 

 700 miles in eight months. The numbers present at the- 

 festival may be anything from 60,000 to 200,000. The time- 

 of the year is unfortunate ; there is constant rain and the 

 ground is soaked. The railway has now reached Puri, and 

 the horrors of the journey have, for the most part, disappeared. 

 Hospitals and medical attendance have for many years been 

 provided both at Puri and at various places on the road thither. 

 The lodging houses have more recently been placed under 

 supervision, but nothing can prevent heavy mortality when this 

 mass of people crowd, in varying and enormous numbers, into- 

 a town in which there is sufficient shelter for the minimum 

 attendance only, if for that. A prohibition of the pilgrimage is. 

 out of the question, as it would be considered by all Hindus as a 

 national wrong and an infringement of the principle of religious, 

 toleration, which is the foundation of British rule in India.. 

 But the stories of immolation beneath the car, when it is. 

 drawn from the temple to the country house, are not founded 



