Page:Deplorable effects of heathen superstition.pdf/11

 assailed by the squalid and ghastly appearance of the famished pilgrims ; many of whom die in the streets of want or of disease; while the devotees, with clotted hair and painted flesh, are seen practising their various amusements, and modes of self torture. Persons of both sexes, with little regard to concealment, sit down on the sands close to the town, in public view ; and the sacred bulls walk about among them and eat the ordure.

The vicinity of Juggernaut to the sea probalyprobably [sic] prevents the contagion, which otherwise would be produced by the putrefaction of the place. There is scarelyscarcely [sic] any verdure to refresh the sight near Juggernaut; the temple and town being nearly encompassed by hills of sand, which have been cast up in the lapse of ages by the surge of the ocean. All is barren and desolate to the eye; and in the ear there is the never intermitting sound of the roaring sea.

I have returned home from witsessingwitnessing [sic] a scene which I shall never forget. At twelve o′clock of this day, being the great day of the feast, the Moloch of Hindoostan was brought out of his temple amidst the acclamations of hundreds of thousands of his worshippers. When the idol was placed upon his throne, a shout was raised by the multitude, such as I had never heard before. It continued equable for a few minutes, and then gradually died away. After a short interval of silence, a murmur was heard at a distance: all eyes were turned towards the place, and, behold a grove advancing. A body of