nd the
glorious ruins of the great Temple at Martund, and so down to Bawan
with its crystal waters and that loveliest camping ground beside them.
A mighty grove of chenar trees, so huge that I felt as if we were in a
great sea cave where the air is dyed with the deep shadowy green of the
inmost ocean, and the murmuring of the myriad leaves was like a sea at
rest. I looked up into the noble height and my memory of Westminster
dwindled, for this led on and up to the infinite blue, and at night
the stars hung like fruit upon the branches. The water ran with a great
joyous rush of release from the mountain behind, but was first received
in a broad basin full of sacred fish and reflecting a little temple of
Maheshwara and one of Surya the Sun. Here in this basin the water lay
pure and still as an ecstasy, and beside it was musing the young Brahman
priest who served the temple. Since I had joined Vanna I had begun with
her help to study a little Hindustani, and with an aptitude for language
could understand here and there. I caught a word or two as she spoke
with him that startled me, when the high-bred ascetic face turned
serenely upon her, and he addressed her as "My sister," adding a
sentence beyond my learning, but which she willingly translated
later.--"May He who sits above the Mysteries, have mercy upon thy
rebirth."

She said afterwards;

"How beautiful some of these men are. It seems a different type of
beauty from ours, nearer to nature and the old gods. Look at that
priest--the tall figure, the clear olive skin, the dark level brows, the
long lashes that make a soft gloom about the eyes--eyes that have the
fathomless depth of a deer's, the proud arch of the lip. I think there
is no country where aristocracy is more clearly marked than in India.
The Brahmans are aristocrats of the world. You see it is a religious
aristocracy as well. It has everything that can foster pride and
exclusiveness. They spring from the Mouth of Deity. They are His word
incarnate. Not many kings are of the Brahman caste, and the Brahmans
look down upon them from Sovereign heights. I have known men who would
not eat with their own rulers who would have drunk the water that washed
the Brahmans' feet."

She took me that day, the Brahman with us, to see a cave in the
mountain. We climbed up the face of the cliff to where a little tree
grew on a ledge, and the black mouth yawned. We went in and often it was
so low we had to stoop, leaving th