And The Devotees
Have Each A Cloth With A Small Quantity Of Rice, Barley, Or Money, Which
They Give To These Old Men When They Have Washed.
They then go to one or
other of the idols, where they present their sacrifices.
When they have
finished their washings oblations and charities, the old men say certain
prayers by which they are all sanctified.
In divers places there stand a kind of images, called _Ada_ in their
language, having four hands with claws; and they have sundry carved
stones on which they pour water, and lay thereon some rice, wheat,
barley and other things. Likewise they have a great place built of
stone, like a well, with steps to go down, in which the water is very
foul and stinking, through the great quantity of flowers which are
continually thrown into the water: Yet there are always many people in
that water, for they say that it purifies them from their sins, because,
as they allege, God washed himself in that place. They even gather up
the sand or mud from the bottom, which they esteem holy. They never pray
but in the water, in which they wash themselves over head, laving up the
water in both hands, and turning themselves about, they drink a little
of the water three times, and then go to the idols which stand in the
houses already mentioned. Some take of the water, with which they wash a
place of their own length, and then lie down stretched out, rising and
lying down, and kissing the ground twenty or thirty times, yet keeping
their right foot all the time in the same place.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 779 of 842
Words from 213687 to 213964
of 230997
