there is not the slightest
doubt that they were all erected by Buddhists. In some of them were
found inscriptions in a perfect state of preservation, and their style
does not remind one in the least of the symbolical buildings of the
Brahmans. Archbishop Heber thinks the Kanari caves were built in the
first or second centuries B.C. But Elephanta is much older and must be
classed among prehistoric monuments, that is to say, its date must
be assigned to the epoch that immediately followed the "great
war," Mahabharata. Unfortunately the date of this war is a point of
disagreement between European scientists; the celebrated and learned
Dr. Martin Haug thinks it is almost antediluvian, while the no less
celebrated and learned Professor Max Muller places it as near the first
century of our era as possible.

The fair was at its culmination when, having finished visiting the
cells, climbing over all the stories, and examining the celebrated "hall
of wrestlers," we descended, not by way of the stairs, of which there is
no trace to be found, but after the fashion of pails bringing water out
of a deep well, that is to say, by the aid of ropes. A crowd of about
three thousand persons had assembled from the surrounding villages and
towns. Women were there adorned from the waist down in brilliant-hued
saris, with rings in their noses, their ears, their lips, and on all
parts of their limbs that could hold a ring. Their raven-black hair
which was smoothly combed back, shone with cocoanut oil, and was adorned
with crimson flowers, which are sacred to Shiva and to Bhavani, the
feminine aspect of this god.

Before the temple there were rows of small shops and of tents, where
could be bought all the requisites for the usual sacrifices--aromatic
herbs, incense, sandal wood, rice, gulab, and the red powder with which
the pilgrim sprinkles first the idol and then his own face. Fakirs,
bairagis, hosseins, the whole body of the mendicant brotherhood, was
present among the crowd. Wreathed in chaplets, with long uncombed hair
twisted at the top of the head into a regular chignon, and with bearded
faces, they presented a very funny likeness to naked apes. Some of them
were covered with wounds and bruises due to mortification of the flesh.
We also saw some bunis, snake-charmers, with dozens of various snakes
round their waists, necks, arms, and legs--models well worthy of the
brush of a painter who intended to depict the image of a male Fury.