Manchurian Books

Several, indeed, on
this occasion, found the toddy rather too exciting, but not so much
as to lose their consciousness or to exceed the bounds of decorum.
The women do not take part in these public processions; but, in the
evening, both sexes assemble in the houses, where the festivities
are said not to be carried on in the most decorous manner.
Martyrs' festivals are no longer celebrated with full splendour. I
did not see any; their time is past. I was, however, so fortunate
as to see a martyr, to whom great numbers of people flocked. This
holy man had, for three-and-twenty years, held one of his arms
raised up with the hand turned back so far that a flower-pot could
stand upon it. The three-and-twenty years were passed, and the
flower-pot was removed; but neither hand nor arm were to be brought
into any other position, for the muscles had contracted, the arm was
quite withered, and presented a most repulsive appearance.
The Island of Elephanta is about six or eight miles distant from
Bombay. Herr Wattenbach was so kind as to take me there one day.


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