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THE ORIENTAL ANNUAL. 
than one instance, lately, strange noises, as of anger, 
and of fiend-like laughter and mockery, had been 
heard by the devotees within the chamber, so that 
they became exceedingly terrified, and dared not to 
venture there, except in company of the priests and 
holy men. 
One evening as a party of women, carrying upon 
their heads large bundles of raw cotton, chanced to 
pass the Jaod Bhae after dusk, a tall figure wrapt in 
a black mantle suddenly appeared in the very midst 
of them. The terror-stricken females for a second 
were rooted to the spot, their breath suspended, their 
eyes starting from the sockets, as they gazed upon 
the cadaverous and earth-stained visage of their super- 
natural visitor. Then with a simultaneous shriek 
they dropped their bhojes and fled, with scared and 
trembling steps, in all directions over the ruins. When, 
— by devious routes over the wild and desolate plain, 
their speed continually increased as each successive 
heap of ruins became peopled with the ghastly 
creatures of their affrighted fancies, — they at last 
arrived at home, and told their piteous tale to their 
husbands, the men were distressed at the loss of the 
cotton, and were inclined to think that their timid 
partners had been needlessly alarmed by suddenly 
encountering some wandering fakhir among the 
tombs : they therefore determined upon setting forth 
in a body to the place, in order to bring home the 
