passage I give a curious example of this. At the end
of July, 1879, this mysterious document appeared in Bombay. I translate
literally, from the Mahratti, the original having been translated into
all the dialects of India, of which there are 273.

"Shri!" (an untranslatable greeting). "Let it be known unto every one
that this epistle, traced in the original in golden letters, came down
from Indra-loka (the heaven of Indra), in the presence of holy Brahmans,
on the altar of the Vishveshvara temple, which is in the sacred town of
Benares.

"Listen and remember, O tribes of Hindustan, Rajis-tan, Punjab, etc.,
etc. On Saturday, the second day of the first half of the month Magha,
1809, of Shalivahan's era" (1887 A.D.), "the eleventh month of the
Hindus, during the Ashwini Nakshatra" (the first of the twenty-seven
constellations on the moon's path), "when the sun enters the sign
Capricorn, and the time of the day will be near the constellation
Pisces, that is to say, exactly one hour and thirty-six minutes after
sunrise, the hour of the end of the Kali-Yug will strike, and the
much desired Satya-Yug will commence" (that is to say, the end of the
Maha-Yug, the great cycle that embraces the four minor Yugas). "This
time Satya-Yug will last 1,100 years. During all this time a man's
lifetime will be 128 years. The days will become longer and will consist
of twenty hours and forty-eight minutes, and the nights of thirteen
hours and twelve minutes, that is to say, instead of twenty-four hours
we shall have exactly thirty-four hours and one minute. The first day
of Satya-Yug will be very important for us, because it is then that will
appear to us our new King with white face and golden hair, who will come
from the far North. He will become the autonomous Lord of India. The
Maya of human unbelief, with all the heresies over which it presides,
will be thrown down to Patala" (sig-nifying at once hell and the
antipodes), "and the Maya of the righteous and pious will abide with
them, and will help them to enjoy life in Mretinloka" (our earth).

"Let it also be known to everyone that, for the dissemination of this
divine document, every separate copy of it will be rewarded by the
forgiveness of as many sins as are generally forgiven when a pious man
sacrifices to a Brahman one hundred cows. As for the disbelievers and
the indifferent, they will be sent to Naraka" (hell). "Copied out and
given, by the slave of Vishnu, Malau Shriram, on