GAW1LGHUR AND MOOHKTAGHIRRI. 
101 
confidence by the Brahmin, and was entrusted to levy 
contributions on the inhabitants, for the service of the 
temple, in an approaching festival., It was generally 
understood that at this pageant in honour of their 
tutelar god, the devout Gossein would publicly submit 
to some wonderfully excruciating penance and morti- 
fication ; and it therefore excited no little surprise in 
the minds of the guards, when, on the morning before 
the festival, they beheld the stranger, equipped as if 
for a journey, attempt to pass out by the southern 
gate. His manner, too, excited suspicion, and it was 
noticed that his feet were bespattered with blood. 
Being questioned by the Durwan, he replied that, 
being a Jhain, and not an orthodox Hindoo, he had 
just been preparing a ram for sacrifice, and was 
then bound in search of certain herbs which could be 
found only in the plains : but the confusion of his 
demeanour, and the apparently great weight of the 
bundle which he carried over his shoulder, induced 
the Durwan to detain the holy man, in defiance of 
his protestations and anathemas. Finding resistance 
vain, he was, at his own request, taken back to the 
temple, to prove, as he said, the truth of his asser- 
tions. 
On entering the apartment, the guard discovered 
a spectacle which filled the hearts of all beholders 
with utter consternation and horror. Prostrate before 
the altar, with the head towards the principal image 
of the god, as if in the act of prayer, lay the lifeless 
k 2 
