the higher gods.

Sham Rao filled his left hand with ashes, murmuring prayers all the
while, covered it for a second with the right one, then put some matter
to the ashes, and mixing the two by rubbing his hands together, he
traced a line on his face with this mixture by moving the thumb of his
right hand from his nose upwards, then from the middle of the forehead
to the right temple, then back again to the left temple. Having done
with his face he proceeded to cover with wet ashes his throat, arms,
shoulders, his back, head and ears. In one corner of the room stood a
huge bronze font filled with water. Sham Rao made straight to it and
plunged into it three times, dhuti, head, and all, after which he came
out looking exactly like a well-favored dripping wet Triton. He twisted
the only lock of hair on the top of his shaved head and sprinkled it
with water. This operation concluded the first act.

The second act began with religious meditations and with mantrams,
which, by really pious people, must be repeated three times a day--at
sunrise, at noon and at sunset. Sham Rao loudly pronounced the names of
twenty-four gods, and each name was accompanied by a stroke of the bell.
Having finished he first shut his eyes and stuffed his ears with cotton,
then pressed his left nostril with two fingers of his left hand, and
having filled his lungs with air through the right nostril, pressed the
latter also. Then he tightly closed his lips, so that breathing became
impossible. In this position every pious Hindu must mentally repeat a
certain verse, which is called the Gayatri. These are sacred words which
no Hindu will dare to pronounce aloud. Even in repeating them mentally
he must take every precaution not to inhale anything impure.

I am bound by my word of honor never to repeat the whole of this prayer,
but I may quote a few unconnected sentences:

"Om... Earth... Heaven.... Let the adored light of.... [here follows a
name which must not be pronounced] shelter me. Let thy Sun, O thou only
One, shelter me, the unworthy... I shut my eyes, I shut my ears, I do
not breathe... in order to see, hear and breathe thee alone. Throw light
upon our thoughts [again the secret name]... "

It is curious to compare this Hindu prayer with the celebrated prayer
of Descartes' "Meditation III" in his L'Existence de Dieu. It runs as
follows, if I remember rightly:

"Now I shut my eyes, cover my ears, and dismiss all my five senses, I
will dwel