which cannot but have a degrading effect upon the
morality of the nation. To propitiate this great god
men perform unheard-of austerities. Near Kedarnath
there is a celebrated cliff from which pilgrims used to
leap as an offering to Shiva, but the practice has been
forbidden by the British Government, and now does
not find any votaries. I t is one thing to give oneself
as an offering when an excited crowd applauds the
act, and the mind is in an ecstatic frenzy, but it is
quite another to commit suicide in cold blood, alone
and unseen. A similar result has followed the prohibition
of Suttee, and now it is an almost unheard-of
thing for the widow to cast herself on the flames of
her husband’s funeral pyre. I t was in former days
also customary for pilgrims, who desired to give their
lives to Shiva, to wander into the higher snows, and
there to perish from cold, hunger, and exposure. It
is popularly believed that Shiva reveals himself to the
eye of faith on these lofty mountains, and there
are sounds—which are curious, but attributable to
avalanches, falling trees, or rocks—which make the
rustic mind fancy that the gods are, indeed, the residents
of these hills.
Opposed to the grimness of Kedarnath are the genial
surroundings of Badrinath. Here, there is a thermal
spring which gives forth thick smoke, or steam, of a
strong sulphurous smell, and the water is so hot as to
be scarcely endurable to the touch, until the temperature
has been reduced by an admixture of cold water
from another spring. In the bath so formed pilgrims
of both sexes bathe indiscriminately. The shrine is
consecrated to Vishnu, and the place has enjoyed a
reputation for sanctity and learning from the earliest
times. The god Vishnu is the type of all that is best in