No distinction of casts is made at this temple, but all, like a nation descended from one common stock, eat, drink, and make merry together.—Stavorinus.
The seven-headed Idol.—XIV. p. 15.
The idol of Jaggenat is in shape like a serpent, with seven heads; and on the cheeks of each head it hath the form of a wing upon each cheek, which wings open and shut and flap as it is carried in a stately chariot, and the idol in the midst of it; and one of the moguls sitting behind it in the chariot, upon a convenient place, with a canopy, to keep the sun from injuring of it.
When I, with horror, beheld these strange things, I called to mind the eighteenth chapter of the Revelations, and the first verse, and likewise the sixteenth and seventeenth verses of the said chapter, in which places there is a beast, and such idolatrous worship, mentioned; and those sayings in that text are herein truly accomplished in the sixteenth verse; for the Bramins are all marked in the forehead, and likewise all that come to worship the idol are marked also in their foreheads.—Bruton. Churchill’s Collection,
The Chariot of the God.—XIV. p. 15.
The size of the chariot is not exaggerated. Speaking of other such, Niecamp says, Currus tam horrendæ magnitudinis sunt, ut vel mille homines uni trahendo vix sufficiant.—i. 10. § 18.
They have built a great chariot, that goeth on sixteen wheels of a side, and every wheel is five feet in height, and the chariot itself is about thirty feet high. In this chariot, on their great festival days, at night, they place their wicked god Jaggarnat; and all the Bramins, being in number nine thousand, then attend this great idol, besides of ashmen and fackeires some thousands, or more than a good many.
The chariot is most richly adorned with most rich and costly ornaments; and the aforesaid wheels are placed very complete in a round circle, so artificially, that every wheel doth its proper office without any impediment; for the chariot is aloft, and in the centre betwixt the wheels: they have also more than two thousand lights with them: And this chariot, with the idol, is also drawn with the greatest and best men of the town; and they are so eager and greedy to draw it, that whosoever, by shouldering, crowding, shoving, heaving, thrusting, or any violent way, can but come to lay a hand upon the ropes, they think themselves blessed and happy: and, when it is going along the city, there are many that will offer themselves as a sacrifice to this idol, and desperately lie down on the ground, that the chariot-wheels may run over them, whereby they are killed outright; some get broken arms, some broken legs; so that many of them are so destroyed, and by this means they think to merit heaven.—Bruton. Churchill’s Collection.
They sometimes lie down in the track of this machine a few hours before its arrival, and, taking a soporiferous draught, hope to meet death asleep.—Claudius Buchanan.
A harlot-band.—XIV. p. 19.