The Number Of Pilgrims Amounts Annually To 300,000 Or 400,000, And The Town Is One Of The Most Wealthy In The Country, Through Their Trading, Sacrifices, And Gifts.

This may not be an improper place to make some remarks upon the religion of these interesting people, which I extract from Zimmerman's "Handbook of Travels."

"The foundation of the Hindoo faith is the belief in a superior primitive being, immortality, and a reward of virtue. The chief idea of God is so great and beautiful, its moral so pure and elevated, that its equal has not been found among any other people.

"Their creed is to worship the highest Being, to invoke their guardian gods, to be well-disposed towards their fellow-men, to pity the unfortunate and help them, to bear patiently the inconveniences of life, not to lie or break their word, to read the sacred histories and to give heed to them, not to talk much, to fast, pray, and to bathe at stated periods. These are the general duties which the sacred writings of the Hindoos enforce, without exception, upon all castes or sects.

"Their true and only god is called 'Brahma,' which must not be confounded with Brahma who was created by the former, who is the true, eternal, holy, and unchangeable light of all time and space. The wicked are punished and the good rewarded.

"Out of the Eternal Being proceeded the goddess Bhavani, i.e., Nature, and a host of 1,180 million spirits.

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