Before The Temple There Were Rows Of Small Shops And Of Tents,
Where Could Be Bought All The Requisites For The Usual Sacrifices -
Aromatic Herbs, Incense, Sandal Wood, Rice, Gulab, And The Red
Powder With Which The Pilgrim Sprinkles First The Idol And Then
His Own Face.
Fakirs, bairagis, hosseins, the whole body of the
mendicant brotherhood, was present among the crowd.
Wreathed in
chaplets, with long uncombed hair twisted at the top of the head
into a regular chignon, and with bearded faces, they presented a
very funny likeness to naked apes. Some of them were covered with
wounds and bruises due to mortification of the flesh. We also saw
some bunis, snake-charmers, with dozens of various snakes round
their waists, necks, arms, and legs - models well worthy of the
brush of a painter who intended to depict the image of a male Fury.
One jadugar was especially remarkable. His head was crowned with
a turban of cobras. Expanding their hoods and raising their
leaf-like dark green heads, these cobras hissed furiously and so
loudly that the sound was audible a hundred paces off. Their
"stings" quivered like light-ning, and their small eyes glittered
with anger at the approach of every passer-by. The expression,
"the sting of a snake," is universal, but it does not describe
accurately the process of inflicting a wound. The "sting" of a
snake is perfectly harmless. To introduce the poison into the
blood of a man, or of an animal, the snake must pierce the flesh
with its fangs, not prick with its sting.
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