East Saginaw courier. (East Saginaw, Mich.) 1859-18??, 1864-11-09
The Juggsrnaut saturnalfa in India.

great festivals Of Juggernaut that al
/, Sd widely celebrated in India. The
commenced on tho 10Th of June, an
We're continued several weeks. O
the 10Th, the priests brought the 90
to the river to be bathed, and tw
weeks afterwards conducted him [
his home amid the Widest orgies, tha
must dispel forever the delusion tha
the Hindoos are abandoning the prac
tice OF immolating themselves unde
the car of Juggernaut. After tn
bathing process, which partook of th
character of farce, the grand cere
mony consisted in placing the idol o.
the car and hauling it back to tn
temple. The scene is thus described
The crowd seemed infinitely NOR
dense than it had even been on tn
former occasion, and all along TIN
road woro boothe fillod with sweat
meats, hideous masks, trumpery Bir
mingham ware and images Of jug
gernaut, Krishna, and the other del
ties Of the Hindoo mythology. L
was a barbarous copy Of country
fair. There were whistles and tom.
toms, shell-fsh smelling horribly il
the sun, hugh Jack fruit, some dam
aged pine-apples, and here and there
a rudely contrived "merry- -go-round, y
with stout baboos enjoying the sport
which that machine is capable of fur
nishing. There wero match girls,
hideously ugly, chanting their drawl-
ing, monotonous strains to the music
Of an old fiddle and tom-tom. The
centre Of attraction was the Jugger-
naut cars. These are immense lum-
bering masses Of wood, about go feet
i'll height, carved into oil sorts Of
angles, and decorated on every square
inch with figures Of the deities. They
are constructed in four stories, so to
speak, and upon each OF those a crowd
of Brahmins and their friends were
collected. Large idols were placed at
each corner, and two ropes Of great
length were attached to the front of
the car. They moved upon six heavy
wheels, and the entire weight of the
ponderous fabric must have been
enormous. 1t was not until four in
the afternoon that big gong was
beaten on the topmost division of the
first car, and with great shout Jug
gernaut himself, swathed in red cloth,
was brought to the spot. A rope was
fastened to him, and with much exer-
ton he was hoisted from stage to
stage by the Brahmins-for by him
self the god seemed rather helpless
They dragged him up and uncovered
him, and the crowd salaamed to him
in their usual fashion. A huge ugly
thing he was, with enormous eyes,
painted black with broad white rim
around them. Then nnqther rod was
yf 'uhnt TIA l9Yer ddiy.'si4Re fa5%a
meanwhile kept throwing garlands
and donations to the Brahmins-dirty,
communicating men, with nothing
whatever to distinguish them from
the common mass except the white
Brahminical thread over their shoul-
ders. When the gods were all in
their places, two large wooden horses
were brought out one blue and the
other white, each with thick tail
sticking up at an angle of ninety de-
grees. These gay steeds were fasten-
ed to tho car, and Brahmin stood
upon the back of each, holding by a
rope.
At this time the scene was extraor-
dinary. The road itself was quite
impassable for the crowds of people,
whose oily bodies and dirty ways did
not improve the flavor of the atmos-
phere. Far as tho eye could reach
this throng extended, and when a
thousand gongs were beating, and the
Brahmins called upon the people, a
thrill of wild excitement ran through
this enormous living mass. The ropes
were fixed, and multitudes rushed to
them, eager for the honor of pulling
their deity along. On the car itsel
there could scarcely have been les
than 200 men. Perhaps there were
one thousand pulling at the ropes
but they pulled for a long timo il
vain. The car had been in one plac'
for whole year, and had made
deep hole for itself by its great weight
Again and again the Brahmins shout
ed and gesticulated, laughing among
themselves. At last the mob happen
cd to pull together instead of one al
ter tho other, and tho mass move
forward few yards, groaning as
it had been living creature. 1t stol
ped, and for few minutes the crow
/ stood in almost perfect silence. The
+. the Brahmins gave the signal, an
!. this time it crushed out life wit
: every revolution Of its hideous wheel
, covered as they were with huma
h flesh and gore. The vast multitu(
: seemed suddenly possessed with q
n of delirium. They fought and strul
: glod with each other to get near Il
Q car, which had stopped as sif by magl
8 They stopped down and peered b
: meath the wheels, and rose with scare
Il faces to tell their friends Of tho sigl
made my way to the back of 4
car, and there saw upon the ground
IS very old woman, all wrinklcd al
J. puckered up, with scarcely line
i ment of her face recognizable +
t. blood and dust. Her right foot W
10 hanging by thread, the wheels h
: passed over the centSr of her ncai
1t naked body, and a faint quiyer
n, anguish ran through her nearly max
f. frame as she seemed TO struggle
ID rise Not ore in the crowd offered
x move her, or raise le, miserable 81
Ii head from the ground, but they sto
g. looking on with vacant stircs, wh
er the Brahmins from tho car ga'
al down with as much. unconcorn
Of could wei be written on a hum
To- countenancs. Tho crowd. criod Il
nc there wero more under tho car, q