Page:Life in India or Madras, the Neilgherries, and Calcutta.djvu/129

105 I longed for the ability to proclaim him as the only Saviour to the ignorant idolaters about me, but the language was yet to be learned. Not far off were exposed to the gaze of all, men, women, and children, paintings of the actions of their gods-pictures too vile and filthy to be described, shamelessly shown as the deeds of the beings whom they worshipped as gods !

Turning into the street upon the opposite side of the tank, we found ourselves before the temple. Here the mass centred, and the religious beggars and devotees were most numerous. Near the temple-gate sat some, wearing the cavi or yellow robe of their order, besmeared all over with ashes, and with their filthy, uncombed hair hanging in clotted strings to their shoulders. Others went through the crowd with wires run through their tongues or cheeks, mincing and dancing with a disgusting air. Attendants carried small brass plates for alms, which they thrust into the faces of the people. Here, too, stood the car, the centre of attraction. It is an unwieldy structure, square and pyramidal, and resting upon four great solid wooden wheels, six feet in diameter. Above, it consists of several stories, growing smaller