with
two steps in front, which serve as a footstool, and this footstool is
covered with a beautiful tapestry, sometimes of silk and sometimes of
gold and silk, according to the solemnity of the rite which is being
celebrated. The altar is covered with gold or silver brocade, or some
beautiful painted cloth. From outside the pagoda this altar faces you
with the idols upon it; for the women and girls must salute it from the
outside, as, save only those of a certain tribe, they are not allowed
to enter the pagoda. Among the idols on the great altar one stands 5 or
6 feet in height; neither the arms, legs, nor trunk are seen, only the
head and neck being visible ; all the remainder of the body, down to
the altar, is covered by a robe which increases in width below.
Sometimes on its neck there is a rich chain of gold, rubies, pearls, or
emeralds. This idol has been made in honour and after the likeness of
Bainmadou,1 formerly a great and holy personage among them,
whose name they often have on their lips. On the right side of the
altar there is also the figure of an animal, or rather of a chimera,
seeing that it represents in part an elephant, in part a horse, and in
part a mule. It is of massive gold, and is called Garou,2 no
person being allowed to approach it but the Brahmans. It is said to be
the resemblance of the animal which this holy personage rode upon when
he was in the world, and that he made long journeys on it, going about
to see if the people were doing their duty and not injuring anyone. At
the entrance of the pagoda, between the principal door and the great
altar, there is to the left a small altar, upon which an idol made of
black marble is seated, with the legs crossed, and about two feet high.
When I was there, near it, on the left, sat a small boy, son of the
chief priest, and all the people who came there threw him pieces of
taffeta, or brocade like handkerchiefs, with which he wiped the idol
and then returned them to the owners.
1 Benimadho, Sanskrit veni, '
a triple braid', the impersonation of the junction of the three sacred
rivers, Ganges, Jamna and Sarasvati, at Prayag, or Allahabad. Madhava,
'honey-sweet', is a title of Vishnu or Krishna.
1 Garuda,
the mythical bird, vulture, half-man, half-bird, on which Vishnu rides,
represented with the head, wings, talons, and beak of an eagle, and the
body and limbs of a man.
