out noon, fruits, roots, soaked peas, sweet-meats, etc.,
are presented. Then, later, boiled rice, fried herbs, and spices;
but no flesh, fish, nor fowl. After dinner, betel-nut. The god is
then left to sleep, and the temple is shut up for some hours.
Toward evening curds, butter, sweet-meats, fruits, are presented.
At sunset a lamp is brought, and fresh offerings made. Lights are
waved before the image; a small bell is rung; water is presented
for washing the mouth, face, and feet, with a towel to dry them. In
a few minutes the offerings and the lamp are removed; and the god
is left to sleep in the dark.

The prescribed worship is not always fully performed. Still, sixteen
things are essential, of which the following are the most important:

"Preparing a seat for the god; invoking his presence; bathing the
image; clothing it; putting the string round it; offering perfumes;
flowers; incense; lamps; offerings of fruits and prepared eatables;
betel-nut; prayers; circumambulation. An ordinary worshiper
presents some of the offerings, mutters a short prayer or two,
when circumambulating the image, the rest being done by the
priest."[31]

We give one additional specimen of the ritual:

"As an atonement for unwarily eating or drinking what is forbidden
eight hundred repetitions of the Gayatri prayer should be preceded
by three suppressions of the breath, water being touched during the
recital of the following text: 'The bull roars; he has four horns,
three feet, two heads, seven hands, and is bound by a three-fold
cord; he is the mighty, resplendent being, and pervades mortal
men.'"[32]

The bull is understood to be justice personified. All Brahmanical
ceremonies exhibit, we may say, ritualism and symbolism run mad.

[Sidenote: Caste.]
The most prominent and characteristic institution of Hinduism is caste.
The power of caste is as irrational as it is unbounded; and it works
almost unmixed evil. The touch--even the shadow--of a low caste man
pollutes. The scriptural precept, "Honor all men," appears to a true
Hindu infinitely absurd. He honors and worships a cow; but he shrinks
with horror from the touch of a Mhar or Mang. Even Brahmans, if they
come from different provinces, will not eat together. Thus Hinduism
separates man from man; it goes on dividing and still dividing; and new
fences to guard imaginary