compensates, in a great measure, for other deficiencies of decoration!* After the images have been lodged in their vehicles, a box is brought forth, containing the golden or gilded feet, hands, and ears of the great idol, which are fixed on the proper parts with due ceremony, and a scarlet scarf is carefully arranged round the lower part of the body, or pedestal. The joy and shouts of the crowd on the first movement of the cars, the creaking sound of the wheels as these pondrous machines roll along, the clatter of hundreds of harsh sounding instruments, and the general appearance of so immense a moving mass of human beings, produce, it must be acknowledged, an impressive, astounding, and somewhat picturesque effect, while the novelty of the scene lasts; though the contemplation cannot fail of exciting the strongest sensations of pain and disgust in the mind of every Christian spectator. In an unfavourable season, or when the festival occurs late, the proportion of deaths occasioned by exposure is very melancholy."+ Dr. Buchanan's visit to Juggernaut's temple, in June, 1806, is well known; a short extract or two from his "Christian Researches" may suffice:—"Numbers of pilgrims die on the road, and their bodies generally remain unburied. On a plain by the river near the pilgrim's Caravansera, at this place, Budruck (100 miles from Juggernaut), there are more than a hundred skulls; the dogs, jackals, and vultures, seem to live here on human prey. Wherever I turn my eyes, I meet death in some shape or other. From the place where I now stand I have a view of a host of people like an army, encamped at the outer gate of the town of Juggernaut, where a guard of soldiers is posted to prevent their entering the town until they have paid the tax.—A pilgrim announced that he was ready to offer himself a sacrifice to the idol. He laid himself down in the road before the car as it was moving along, on his face, with his arms stretched forward. The multitude passed round him, leaving the space clear, and he was crushed to death by the wheels. How much I wish that the Proprietors of India Stock could have attended the wheels "The other evening a cart load of gay coloured English woollens passed me from the Company's Warehouse, to adorn the idols' cars. Alas! that the same country should, in so shocking a sense, send out both blessing and cursing. June 23, 1827."—Ext. Miss. Jour. ✝ Asi. Res. Vol, xv. pp. 321—325. of Juggernaut, and seen this peculiar source of their re venue! I beheld a distressing scene this morning in the place of skulls; a poor woman lying dead, or nearly so, and her two children by her, looking at the dogs and vultures which were near. The people passed by without noticing the children! I asked them where was their home? They said they had no home but where their mother was. O there is no pity at Juggernaut! Those who support his kingdom err. I trust, from ignorance. They know not what they do." Colonel Phipps, who witnessed the Car Festival in 1822, thus describes the miseries occasioned by it:—" The loss of life, by this deplorable superstition, probably exceeds that of any other. The aged, the weak, the sick, are persuaded to attempt this pilgrimage, as a remedy for all evils. The number of women and children, also, is very great. The pilgrims leave their families and occupations, to travel an immense distance, with the delusive hope of obtaining eternal bliss. Their means of subsistence on the road are scanty; and their light clothing and little bodily strength are ill calculated to encounter the inclemency of the weather. When they reach the district of Cuttack, they cease to experience that hospitality shown elsewhere to pilgrims; it is a burden which the inhabitants could not sustain: and they prefer availing themselves of the increased demand of provisions to augment the price! This difficulty is more severely felt as they approach the temple; till they find scarcely enough left to pay the tax to Government, and to satisfy the rapacious Brahmuns. The pilgrim, on leaving Juggernaut, has still a long journey before him; and his means of support are often almost, if not quite exhausted. The work of death then becomes rapid; and the route of the pilgrims may be traced, by the bones left by jackals and vultures. The country near the temple seems suddenly to have been visited by pestilence and famine. Dead bodies are seen in every direction. Parriar dogs, jackals, and vultures, are observed watching the last moments of the dying pilgrim, and not unfrequently hastening his fate."* The late Rev. W. Ward has made a calculation of the number that are supposed to perish annually, the victims of superstition. He estimates that 4,000 pilgrims perish every Mis. Resigter, 1824, p. 578. year, on the roads to, and at holy places, and a Gentleman whose opinion is of great weight, says, "I believe this estimate is far below the truth." "By fevers, by the dysentery, and other diseases, arising from exposure to the night air and the privations of a long journey, crowds are carried off in a few days. Sacred places, the resort of pilgrims, are spread all over Hindostan, and pilgrims travel to them from distances requiring journeys of three, four, and five months." An officer writing to his friends about the pilgrims at the gate of Pooree, detained for a time to make them pay the tax, says, "I let above 100 out of limbo at Juggernaut: there were 1000 dead and dying:—all in limbo starving to extort money from them."* The Rev. W. Bampton, Missionary at Juggernaut, in an account of the Car Festival of 1823, writes:—"July 11th. In front of one of the cars lay the mangled body of a dead man, one arm and one leg were eaten, and two dogs were then eating him: many people were near, both moving and stationary, but they did not seem to take any notice of the circumstance! I went to see the state of the pilgrims, who, either because they could not, or would not pay the tax, were kept without one of the gates. In the course of the morning I saw within a mile of the gate about six dead: the dogs and birds were eating three of them. Five or six lay dead within a mile of the gate; and it is generally admitted that there was not a tenth, perhaps scarcely a twentieth, of the pilgrims this year who attend sometimes; and, if there be the same proportion of dead and sick at all times, fifty or sixty dead might some years be seen, within a mile of this gate, and eighty or a hundred sick. A specimen of what is sometimes seen was given me by a military officer, who pointed out a piece of ground, perhaps scarcely an acre, on which he last year counted at one time twenty-five dead bodies." The Rev. C. Lacey, the author's colleague at Cuttack, thus describes the car festival in June 1825:—"The mortality did not much appear before the 16th; on the 19th it was exceedingly bad, for the day before the rain began to fall, and more came on the 19th and 20th; and for the next three days it fell in torrents. At this time the scene had reached its height, and was truly shocking on every hand. In every street, corner, and open space,—in fact wherever * Ward's View of the Hindoos. Vol. ii. pp. 126, 318. |