Page:Life in India or Madras, the Neilgherries, and Calcutta.djvu/311

Rh granite, with a little shrubbery here and there in spots where the crumbled granite has made a little soil. Passing several tanks—some of which were natural cavities, others artificially cut in the side of the mountain—we gained the end of the second stage of the ascent.

Now a perpendicular column of granite towered above us, in some places split and cracked, and resembling a huge castellated fortress. Here we found a winding footpath, in some parts cut into fair, safe steps, but in others so smooth that we passed them on our hands and feet, lest we should slip and be precipitated below. The danger, however, is small, as the pathway has been made with much skill and labour. At last, passing a now-deserted tiger's lair, and stooping beneath a cleft rock, under which we must go, emerging, and then ascending a few narrow granite steps, we were at the summit, and in the portico of a small temple. This, with six other shrines, crowns the mountain. All are very small, and have been built with much ingenuity, resting, at different elevations, partly on pillars, and partly on levelled portions of the peak; and all are dedicated to the same god—the elephant-headed Ganesha. Thus is this contemptible idol honoured and