These men are horrible looking objects, most of them
being painted white and nearly naked. Ummernath is a mountain 1,600
feet high, and at the top of it is a cave sacred to the Hindoo Deity.
In July pilgrims assemble there for a great religious festival, and
these are some of them on their way back. I intended to visit this cave,
but I have not time now, and I have thought that it may be a trifle too
cold up there. At Burven is a very holy spring. Two tanks are formed
where the water escapes from the ground, and these tanks swarm with tame
fish, some of them of large size. It was a great sight feeding them.
They all rushed to the place struggling and fighting for the food. The
bright green water was black with them, and a space yards wide and long,
and several feet thick, was occupied by a block of fish packed as
closely as if they were pickled herrings. These fish are also very
sacred, and to catch them is prohibited. Soon after leaving Kunbul I
passed through Islamabad, a large town of which I may have more to say
hereafter. There are two other men encamped here with me, but they don't
seem very sociable, and I don't care much for the society of strangers;
we have exchanged "good mornings" and that is all, and now sit staring
at each other at a distance of twenty yards.
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