The times. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1890-1903, 1894-10-14

nehDereu ihat ms mother was OF raj
put Bharmin birth, from kulu way-a
Hill-woman, always home-elck for the
snows-and that the least touch OF Hill
blood draws a man at the send back to
run Bhagat. breasting the lower slopes Of
the Sewaliks, where the cacu stand up
like seven-branched candlesticks, ''yon-
der / Shall sit down and get kn0wledge;
and the cool wind OF the Himalayas
whlstled about his ears as he trod the
road that led TO Simla. The last time he
had come that way IL had been in state
with a Gathering cavalry escort, 10 visit
the gentlest and most affable of Vice
roys, and the two had talked for an hour
together about mutual friends in London,
and what the Indian common folk really
thought Of things; This time Purqh
rail of the Mall watching that glorious
view of the plains spread out forty
miles below, till a native Mohammedan
policeman told him he was obstructing
entity to the law, because he knew the
value Of ii. and was hunting for law
Of his own. Then he moved on, and
slept that night In an empty hut at Chota
end of the earth. but 1t was only the
beginning Of his journey. lie followed
the Himalayan-Thlbet road, the little ten
foot track that is blasted out of solid
rock, or strutted out on tlmbers over
CULTS a thousand feet deep: that dips IN
10 warm, wet, shut-in valleys and climbs
out across bare grassy hill-shoulders
where the sun strikes like a burning
glass: or turns through dripping. dark
forests where the tree-ferns dress the
trunks from head TO heel, and the pleas
ant calls TO his mate. ana he met
Thibetan herd men with their dogs anu
focks of sheep-eaCh sheep with d little
bag of boraX on his baCk-dnd wander
ing woodCutters, and cloaked ana Dlahk-
eted Lamds from Thibet, coming mo
India on pilgrimage, and ENJOYS OF lltte
oil c a
ring-streaked and piebald ponies, or the
cavalcade of a Raja paying visit; or
else for clear long day he would see
nothing more than black bear gruntIhS
and roofing down below in the valley.
When he first started, the roar OF the
world he had left still rang in his ears, as
the roar Of a tunnel rings long AFTER
The train has passed through; but before
he had put the Mutteeanee Pass behind
him that was all done, and Purun Bha-
"a was alone with himself walking, Won
dering. and thinking, his eyes on the
ground and his thoughts with the clouds.
one evening he crossed the highest
pass he had met till then-it had been a
two days ciimb-and came out on a
line of Snow-peaks that belted all the
horiZon-mountains from fifteen TO TWEEN
ty thousand feet high, and looking al
most near enough TO hit with a stone,
though they were fifty or sixty mics
away. The pass was crowned with dense
dark forest-deodar, walnut. wild Cherry,
deodar which is the Himalayan cedar;
and under the shadows of the deodars
stood a deserted shrine TO kali-Who is
Durga, who is Sitala, who is sometimes
Worshiped against the smallpox.
Purun Dass swept the stone floor cleail'
smiled at the gTinnlng statue, made
himself little mud fireplace at the paGN
of the shrine, spread his antelope SKIN
on q bed of fresh pine needIes' tucHeu
his 'bairagt-his braSs-handled crutch-
Immediately below him the hillside lei
away. bare and cleared for iliteen nun.
drcd feet, TO where little WH5ee Oh
stone-walled houses, with roofs OF peatti
earth. chung 10 the steep tint All rouhd
Il tine tiny terraced fields lay out lke
aprons of patchwork on the knees OF the
mountain and COWS no bigger thah DeeI-
les grazed between the smooth stonne
circles of the threashlng- noors. Looh-
ing across the valley the eye was ue-
caived NV the size OF things. anu cou.d
NOT AT first realize that what seemed 10
he low scrub, on the opposite mouhtdlI-
hank, was in truth forest OF huhude GU
foGt mines. Purun Bhagat saw an eagle
e 80 across the gigantic hollow, but
The great bird dwingled y GOT ere ~
was halfway over. lew bauus VI
scattered clouds strung up ana doWh Iie
valley, catching on a S,,iur ont when
they were level with the heaa oil lnS5
pass. And "Herc snail l ma peace
said Purun Bhagat. o..,u., 80 q
Now a Hill-man makes holhihs 1i 81
few hundred feet up or down, and as as
coon as the villagers saw me SMOKE IS,o ~
the deserted shrine the Yliiaige P,re eI
climbed up the terraced hillside 10 WEI
come the stranger. r.,,.ps o,es-
When he met Purun Bhagats eyes
the eyes Of man used TO cQllrol .n ~
sandsEhe bowed to the earth, took the
begging bowl without a Moia .,T gnu nave
Turned 10 the village saying wv naoe
at at last a holy man. Never have seen