mud, and crushed flowers. During the whole
performance the air rang with shouts, the gongs
boomed out funereal chimes. the; people were
in a religeous frenzy, capable of any wild act
of enthusiasm.

It was in moments such as these, in the old
time, that human victims were, found ready to
immolate themselves before the demon's throne
I once knew of a party of Hindoos, who, after
a debauch, while they were labouring under the
maddening effects of bhang (hibiscus Indicus),:
proposed to act such a scene as I have described;
the victim for the sacrifice being wanted by the
mock high priest, one of them stepped forward
to be the goat or buffalo (the usual sacrifice),
and in an instant his comrades cut off his head.
The murderers fell asleep, and woke next morning,
prisoners in the hands of the police. Some,
I believe and hope, were hanged, and the rest
transported. I have; seen extraordinary tortures
undergone: by Hindoos during the Churruk
Poojah or swinging festival. These deluded
wretches, who undergo a fortnight's training
— to render their blood less inflammatory,
I suppose— have paraded before me, some with a
long iron rod a quarter of an inch thick, stuck
through the centre of their tongues; others with
the hooks by which they had been hung up, still
quivering in the bleeding muscles of their backs;
but the most eccentric torture I ever witnessed
was a sort of seton dance. A man, dressed
in fighting costume, sword and shield in hand,
with a plume of feathers in his hair, and variegated
cloth round his loins, had passed two
pieces of twine through the skin of his sides
just below the ribs; and, while two men kept the
strings tight, and nicely oiled, to allow them to
slide easily through the wounds, he performed a
maniac dance to a band of music which
accompanied him.

Accidents often happen in this festival. I
have known a poor wretch to fall from the swinging-
tree and break both his legs, because the
muscles of his back, through which the hooks
are passed were torn through by his weight.
It is a common thing for a man to vow that he
will measure, with his body laid at full length
on the ground, the distance from his place of
abode to Juggernaut, though it may be a
thousand miles. Of course this preposterous feat takes
years to accomplish, and many die by the way:
their bodies being left, to the care of the jackals
and vultures. I have seen a man whose nails had
grown through the back of his hand, which, of
course was clenched, and had probably been
bound in that position; another, who, with an
upright withered arm, supported a pot of the
sacred foolsee plant, his nails curling round the
sides of the snare. Another form of this
fanaticism I once saw in the person of a stout well-
to-do looking man (clothed with only a strip of
leopard's skin round his loins), who had been a
rich banker, but was then toiling along the hot
and dusty road on foot, subsisting on alms
bestowed on him at each village he passed. He
had made over ail his worldly possessions to his
relatives, and had devoted the remainder of his
days to a pilgrimage to the sacred city of
Odjein.

It is not beside our mark to talk of Hindoo
superstition as we traverse the fair. Street
upon street of tents, of all the colours of the
rainbow, stretch, in irregular lines, as far as
the eye can reach. In some, we see the gold
embroidered cloths of Delhi, and the silks
of Mooltan; in others, the familiar lables of
Manchester, attached to some gaudy chintz or
snow-white long-cloth, demonstrate the power
of machinery— for these very goods have cost
double their original price in transit charges,
and yet beat out of the field the handloom work
of the district in which cotton itself is grown.

Here is a grand affair! A gaudy tent with
many-coloured shamianah, or awning, in front,
under which sit a party of Cashmere nantchnees
or dancing-girls, rehearsing portions of their
songs for the evening's entertainmment. They
sing to the accompaniment of a violin and two
tubluks, or small hand drums. Beautiful peris
they doubtless are in the eyes of those who gaze
and listen their fill now, their purses not being
long enough to command an entrance to the
regular nautch, which will take place after
dark, when the fair shall be brigjht with
coloured lamps, and the sounds of revelry
take place of the discordant noises of the morning.
Here, is a huge elephant, chained by all
four legs; he has been brought up from the
forests of Assam within the last six months,
and is not nearly tame. Two female elephants
stand on either side of him, who keep him in
good humour: he gallantly tearing tender shoots
from the branches before him, and gently
placing them in the mouth of his favourite
sultana. "How much for his lordship?" we
ask the keeper. " Seven hundred pounds,
besides backshish to the grooms who attend
him." And that money will be paid, too, by
some of the native princes who come to the
fair, and to whom a large elephant is the true
representative of state. " Bom Bom Mahudes!"
is the shout of a string of men from Juggernaut,
or some equally distant shrine, carrying,
balanced on their shoulders, wicker baskets,
containing jars of sacred water. The water is
for sale, at so much a drop, and will be offered
in oblations at the temples.

Here is a wild group of Ishmaelites, horse-
dealers for the nonce, and not the less robbers
for that, though they do not plunder now as
they used to do at home in the wild passes
of Cabool. They are enormous men, with
limbs like those of English navvies. And whom
do we meet now, striding defiant? Whom but
our gallant little Major Toddles,  in a huge pith
helmet and long jack-boots. The major has
come to buy a horse, and saunters off in the
direction of the horse-fair. My friends and I
had come with the same desire, and it was in
the centre of the horse-fair that we found our
tent. So we engaged a dulal, or broker, who
spread the news of our being purchasers, and
were soon besieged by a motley crowd of Affghan,
Mogul, Arab, and Hindustanee horse-dealers,