"The heat is not now so great; shall we proceed on our journey?" said Bandhu, who from some undefined misgiving wished to join the larger band of pilgrims without much delay.
Idolatry, however, objected to starting at once, on the score of some evil omens that had shown him that the day was unlucky. "We shall proceed to-morrow, before daylight," he said.
Bandhu, having been drugged by Superstition, very much feared unlucky days, and was easily persuaded to stop with his new companions.
Many a tale was told to beguile the time, the supposed Chhatris were adepts in telling stories. Idolatry recounted much of the history of his own family, which to any one who had not drunk of the poison of Superstition would have appeared very horrible indeed. Many a widow in that family had been burnt alive on the funeral pile. Idolatry delighted in giving the details, and telling of the courage and devotion of the women, but he told not how many had been stupefied by bang, or how many had been really, but secretly, kept from springing from their bed of flames, by long bamboos held down by the Brahmins. Stories of shrieking babes flung by their own mothers into rivers, of poor wretches crushed beneath the ponderous wheels of an idol-car, in the vain hope of saving their souls by destroying their bodies, in tales such as these Idolatry delighted.
And his besotted hearer actually expressed approval, actually wished that he had been present when such monstrous crimes were committed! Oxen and buffaloes would have taken no delight in beholding such murders, but Superstition had sunk Bandhu to slower level than that of the brutes!
Then Vice, child of Idolatry, told his stories; but at their nature I will not even hint. Had not Bandhu been utterly debased by the drug given by Farebwala, he would have closed his ears with his hands, or quitted the place in disgust. Reader! Have your ears ever drunk in such stories, and have you ever dared to connect them in any way with the sacred name of religion?
At sunset the three pilgrims performed their devotions, and Bandhu particularly noticed how careful were his companions to perform theirs in the most orthodox way, with ablutions and many repetitions of the name of Rám.
"How pious are these Chhatris!" thought he.
The two men made a little fireplace for themselves, and cooked their victuals.
Bandhu had brought his food ready prepared, and as his companions showed that they preferred eating alone, he took his meal a little apart.