THE CAR OF JUGGERNAUT.
When our friends entered the temple the boys asked for the famous car on which the idol takes his annual ride. The guide led the way to a small shrine in the enclosure surrounding the temple where the wonderful carriage was standing. It was a great structure, about forty feet high and nearly as many square on each of its four sides; its wheels were eight or ten feet in diameter, and were hewn from single blocks of wood like the trucks on a country baby-cart. The shrine where the god is placed during his annual ride was decorated with some hideous carving, and just above the wheels there were representations of horses in the act of running.
A little distance away were two smaller cars, and the guide explained that each of the idols has a carriage of his own, that of Juggernaut being the largest and most important. A short time was devoted to the inspection of these vehicles, and then the party left the temple and returned to the shore, as it was near the hour for the steamer to leave; besides, it was considered judicious to get away from the pestilential atmosphere of the temple, as none of the strangers cared to invite the development of a case of cholera on his own account.
On the way back to the ship the guide told the boys about the great car festival that takes place in July of each year.
For weeks before the time fixed for the event the pilgrims arrive at the rate of thousands daily, and the city is crowded to its utmost capacity; there are rarely less than 100,000 people there on the occasion of the great festival, and sometimes they are ten or twelve thousand above that figure. When the day comes for the ceremony, all the space in and around the temple is densely crowded, and the priests find it difficult to move about in the performance of their duties. The idols are taken from their pedestals and placed in their cars, and as this is done a signal is made, and the whole multitude falls to the ground. In a few moments they rise and seize the great ropes to drag the cars forward, amid the beating of hundreds of drums and the clashing of many gongs and cymbals.
The huge car of Juggernaut moves onward amid the shouts of the vast assemblage, the sound of music in frightful discordance, and the songs of the priests who stand on the front of the car or clinging to its sides. The progress is slow, and sometimes the journey of little more than a mile requires two or three days for its accomplishment. The end of the journey is the summer-house of the god, and when the car has been brought there it is abandoned by the pilgrims, whose pious duty has been finished. It is taken back to the temple by the inhabitants of Pooree and the surrounding country, and the idols are restored to their pedestals.
A TROPICAL MORNING AT SEA.
By the time the story was ended the boat was at the side of the steamer, and our friends were speedily on board. In a little while the captain had completed his business at Pooree, and the vessel steamed away in the direction of Calcutta. Pooree was the last port visited on the voyage from Colombo to Calcutta.