Walker Lake bulletin. (Hawthorne, Nev.) 1883-1926, 1898-11-02
VISIT TO A MAHATMa.
Lives In Cave and Shows HI;
but Once Year.

Lives IN a cave and Shows Him.
but Once a Year,
Il was told off on urgent famiro
spection to get disorder straight !. NJ
village, the name of which sipn,sa
sea of cobras.' Famine and eobna"
double enemy-hard luck. | thoua,'
Famine battled bravely and snoasHl
fully. but there was no sight N, tna
OF the other, and the sea was
better than "A name. The VILLAGE
perhaps never known for cobras
they are now extinct, or, the bellep H.
gers still, the cobra played truant rraa
the time the Mahatma Kathiranno ~
gan to work miracles. A shnnna.,
youth. grazing cattle with his CONNIE.
ions. by verbal command crpatnd
spring in the early twenties from,
rock; ii is perennial to this day nro.s
against the worst drouth. He wop1
secure the village from famine and Ma
thence, or give timely warning of tbo,.
apparance--of course the last two :.
three famines excepted. He lives in
3" 'e'c WI At hiiioSh oop leet high
known after him for miles around ana
even in the village survey map. Tha
hillock attracts the distant wavfaron
by what appears TO him turrets. alta,
the manner of the Jain architecture
but which really are rudely carved
monolithic domelike rocks. His mama
Is on every lip, but nobody knows hls
history.
The oldest man In the village. sbout
three score and ten, tells me that tba
Mahatma should now almost be can
tenarian. Preferrlng solitude, renounc
ing his home and hearth, he sought tha
cave, round which a clolster stands
furnishing abode for about dozen
members of either sex. and their cols
ter is closed against the public exeent
for one day in the year, the full moon
day of the first month of the Telugu
cycle year, when the Mahatma presents
himself to all seated on a slab at the
entrance to the cave, his body covered
with his mass of tangled hair. deaf
mutelike, and retires unperceiyed to re.
appear again the next year. The Dill
grim offers presents, VOWS are cele.
brated, car runs around the hllock
and the whole day is spent in sight.
seeing and Jubilation. BY the miracles
of his youth, and probably the career
Of his later life Kathirappa has become
popular god within Il radius of some
fifty miles. But the Mahatma Is in
need of no earthly gift. and the contri
buttons of the deyout go 10 support the
inmates of the cloister, who neither
seek nor refuse who accept and give
charity.
These strange beings are provision
ed by disciples living in huts at the
entrance to the closter or at the foot
of the hill. The disciples are ready with
strange and fantastic stories of ther
demigod. who in flesh and in spirit
claim TO be connected with the Mahat
ma, and who pass from the cradle TO
the grave in their little cloister, beyond
the pale of law or public gaze. The
Mahatma is evidently inscrutable to
the layman. How much longer his NOR
tai frame will show itself and the fate
after its disappearance of the little hill
colony dependent on him are puzzles
which cannot pretend to solve. Every.
thing connected with the Mahatma Is
held in veneration, but Ramappa, his
grandson, drove me to the next famine
station in n cart drawn by the Mahat-
mas animals. This is sacrilege they
say; but cannot the liberal hire, and
the present of two silver bits that |
made ut the cloister save mer'-Madras
Mail.