wn, however
low.'[4]

'Yes', said the Mir, 'they are a very strange kind of people, and I
question whether they ever had a real prophet among them.'

'I question, Mir Sahib, whether they really ever had such a person.
They of course think the incarnations of their three great divinities
were beings infinitely superior to prophets, being in all their
attributes and prerogatives equal to the divinities themselves.[5]
But we are disposed to think that these incarnations were nothing
more than great men whom their flatterers and poets have exalted into
gods--this was the way in which men made their gods in ancient Greece
and Egypt. These great men were generally conquerors whose glory
consisted in the destruction of their fellow creatures; and this is
the glory which their flatterers are most prone to extol. All that
the poets have sung of the actions of men is now received as
revelation from heaven; though nothing can be more monstrous than the
actions attributed to the best incarnation, Krishna, of the best of
their gods, Vishnu.[6]

'No doubt', said Salamat Ali; 'and had they ever had a real prophet
among them he would have revealed better things to them. Strange
people! when their women go on pilgrimages to Gaya, they have their
heads shaved before the image of their god; and the offering of the
hair is equivalent to the offer of their heads;[7] for heads, thank
God, they dare no longer offer within the Company's territories.'

'Do you. Mir Sahib, think that they continue to offer up human
sacrifices anywhere?'

'Certainly I do. There is a Raja at Ratanpur, or somewhere between
Mandla and Sambalpur, who has a man offered up to Devi every year,
and that man must be a Brahman. If he can get a Brahman traveller,
well and good; if not, he and his priests offer one of his own
subjects. Every Brahman that has to pass through this territory goes
in disguise.[8] With what energy did our emperor Aurangzeb apply
himself to put down iniquities like this in the Rajputana states, but
all in vain. If a Raja died, all his numerous wives burnt themselves
with his body--even their servants, male and female, were obliged to
do the same; for, said his friends, what is he to do in the next
world without attendants? The pile was enormous. On the top sat the
queen with the body of the prince; the servants, male and female,
according to their degree, below; and a large army stood all round to
drive into the fire again or kill all who s