d heard had nothing supernatural about it and belonged to the Brahman
hidden under the Sivatherium--to someone's live uncle, as Mr. Y---- had
rightly supposed.

Oh, Narayan! how carelessly.... how disorderly the worlds rotate around
us.... I begin to seriously doubt their reality. From this moment I
shall earnestly believe that all things in the universe are nothing but
illusion, a mere Maya. I am becoming a Vedantin.... I doubt that in the
whole universe there may be found anything more objective than a Hindu
witch flying up the spout.----

Miss X---- woke up, and asked what was the meaning of all this
noise. The noise of many voices and the sounds of the many retreating
footsteps, the general rush of the crowd, had frightened her. She
listened to us with a condescending smile, and a few yawns, and went to
sleep again.

Next morning, at daybreak, we very reluctantly, it must be owned, bade
good-bye to the kind-hearted, good-natured Sham Rao. The confoundingly
easy victory of Narayan hung heavily on his mind. His faith in the holy
hermitess and the seven goddesses was a good deal shaken by the shameful
capitulation of the Sisters, who had surrendered at the first blow from
a mere mortal. But during the dark hours of the night he had had time to
think it over, and to shake off the uneasy feeling of having unwillingly
misled and disappointed his European friends.

Sham Rao still looked confused when he shook hands with us at parting,
and expressed to us the best wishes of his family and himself.

As to the heroes of this truthful narrative, they mounted their
elephants once more, and directed their heavy steps towards the high
road and Jubbulpore.

God's Warrior

The direction of our pilgrimage of self-improvement lay towards the
north-west, as was previously decided. We were very impatient to see
these status in statu of Anglo-India, but.... Do what you may, there
always will be a but.

We left the Jubbulpore line several miles from Nassik; and, to return to
it, we had to go back to Akbarpur, then travel by doubtful Local-Board
roads to the station Vanevad and take the train of Holkar's line, which
joins the Great Indian Peninsular Railway.

Meanwhile, the Bagh caves were quite close to us, not more than fifty
miles off, to the east from Mandu. We were undecided whether to leave
them alone or go back to the Nerbudda. In the country situated on the
other side of Kandesh, our Babu had some "chums," a