for the same purpose, and shift their clothes in the water, without 
the least idea of infringing the laws of decency. 
After performing their religious ablutions, the Hindoos receive 
on their forehead the mark either of Visnoo or Siva; this mark, 
affixed by a brahmin, varies in form and colour, according to the 
sect they profess; the one being horizontal, the other perpendicu- 
lar: it is made from a composition of sandal-wood, turmeric, and 
cow-dung; the latter is deemed peculiarly sacred. The mark on 
the forehead is frequently alluded to in the sacred scriptures, as 
characteristic of the righteous and the wicked : we read “ of those 
who had the mark of the beast; and of those blessed and happy 
beings, who were admitted to the pure river of the water of life, 
proceeding out of the throne of God and of the Lamb, whose 
name was written on their foreheads; and who had not received 
the mark of the beast upon their foreheads, nor on their hands.” 
The sacred groves of Fulparra, are the general resort for 
all the Yogees, Senassees, and Hindoo pilgrims who visit Surat, 
from the most remote regions of Ilindostan; the whole district 
is holy, and the Tappee in that part has a more than com- 
mon sanctity: all ablutions in a river are thought to be more 
efficacious than an immersion in stagnant water; the Levitical 
law enjoined the leper to bathe in the running stream; the Hindoos 
annex to it a greater degree of purity than in any tank at their 
temples. These devotees are great travellers; they wander, either 
collectively or individually, from the confines of Russia to Cape 
Comorin; and from the borders of China to Malabar-hill on the 
island of Bombay, where there is a fane of much celebrity. 
