d into
a kind of Greek chignon. The legs up to the knees, the arms, and the
waist are never covered. There is not a single respectable woman who
would consent to put on a pair of shoes. Shoes are the attribute and the
prerogative of disreputable women. When, some time ago, the wife of the
Madras governor thought of passing a law that should induce native
women to cover their breasts, the place was actually threatened with
a revolution. A kind of jacket is worn only by dancing girls. The
Government recognized that it would be unreasonable to irritate women,
who, very often, are more dangerous than their husbands and brothers,
and the custom, based on the law of Manu, and sanctified by three
thousand years' observance, remained unchanged.

For more than two years before we left America we were in constant
correspondence with a certain learned Brahman, whose glory is great
at present (1879) all over India. We came to India to study, under his
guidance, the ancient country of Aryas, the Vedas, and their difficult
language. His name is Dayanand Saraswati Swami. Swami is the name of the
learned anchorites who are initiated into many mysteries unattainable by
common mortals. They are monks who never marry, but are quite different
from other mendicant brotherhoods, the so-called Sannyasi and Hossein.
This Pandit is considered the greatest Sanskritist of modern India
and is an absolute enigma to everyone. It is only five years since
he appeared on the arena of great reforms, but till then, he lived,
entirely secluded, in a jungle, like the ancient gymnosophists mentioned
by the Greek and Latin authors. At this time he was studying the chief
philosophical systems of the "Aryavartta" and the occult meaning of the
Vedas with the help of mystics and anchorites. All Hindus believe that
on the Bhadrinath Mountains (22,000 feet above the level of the sea)
there exist spacious caves, inhabited, now for many thousand years, by
these anchorites. Bhadrinath is situated in the north of Hindustan on
the river Bishegunj, and is celebrated for its temple of Vishnu right in
the heart of the town. Inside the temple there are hot mineral springs,
visited yearly by about fifty thousand pilgrims, who come to be purified
by them.

From the first day of his appearance Dayanand Saraswati produced
an immense impression and got the surname of the "Luther of India."
Wandering from one town to another, today in the South, tomorrow in the
North, and tr