a crescent-shaped knife, with
chains attached to it forming stirrups, so adjusted that when the fanatic
placed the edge to the back of his neck and his feet in the stirrups, by
giving the latter a violent jerk his head was cut off. Padre Tieffentaller
mentions a like instrument at Prag (or Allahabad). Durgavati, a famous
Queen on the Nerbada, who fell in battle with the troops of Akbar, is
asserted in a family inscription to have "severed her own head with a
scimitar she held in her hand." According to a wild legend told at Ujjain,
the great king Vikramajit was in the habit of cutting off his own head
_daily_, as an offering to Devi. On the last performance the head failed
to re-attach itself as usual; and it is now preserved, petrified, in the
temple of Harsuddi at that place.

I never heard of anybody in Europe performing this extraordinary feat
except Sir Jonah Barrington's Irish mower, who made a dig at a salmon with
the butt of his scythe-handle and dropt his own head in the pool! (_Jord._
33; _I.B._ IV. 246; _Ward_, Madras ed. 249-250; _J.A.S.B._ XVII. 833;
_Ras Mala_, II. 387.)

NOTE 9.--Satis were very numerous in parts of S. India. In 1815 there were
one hundred in Tanjore alone. (_Ritter_, VI. 303; _J. Cathay_, p. 80.)

NOTE 10.--"The people in this part of the country (Southern Mysore)
consider the ox as a living god, who gives them bread; and in every
village there are one or two bulls to whom weekly or monthly worship is
performed." (_F. Buchanan_, II. 174.) "The low-caste Hindus, called _Gavi_
by Marco Polo, were probably the caste now called _Paraiyar_ (by the
English, _Pariahs_). The people of this caste do not venture to kill the
cow, but when they find the carcase of a cow which has died from disease,
or any other cause, they cook and eat it. The name _Paraiyar_, which means
'Drummers,' does not appear to be ancient."[6] (_Note by the Rev. Dr.
Caldwell_.)

In the history of Sind called _Chach Namah_, the Hindus revile the
Mahomedan invaders as _Chandals_ and cow-eaters. (_Elliot_, I. 172, 193).
The low castes are often styled from their unrestricted diet, e.g.
_Halal-Khor_ (P. "to whom all food is lawful"), _Sab-khawa_ (H.
"omnivorous").

Babu Rajendralal Mitra has published a learned article on _Beef in ancient
India_, showing that the ancient Brahmans were far from entertaining the
modern horror of cow-killing. We may cite two of his numerous
illustrations. _Goghna_, "a guest," signifies litera