I should like to ask for some
information in regard to Juggernaut," said Uncle Moses. "I used to read the
most horrible stories in my Sabbath-school books about that idol."

"Those stories, as I have been informed by elderly Englishmen, were
published in the United Kingdom, and all of them are inventions or gross
exaggerations," replied Sir Modava, with his pleasant smile. "Puri, or
Juggernaut, is in the district of Orissa, on the western shore of the Bay
of Bengal. It is one of the holiest places in India among the Hindus. It
contains a temple of Juggernaut, in honor of Vishnu, in which is an idol of
this Hindu god, called Jagannath, which is mentioned in history as far back
as A.D. 318. Vishnu is the Preserver of the Hindu trinity, and therefore in
an especial sense the god of the people; and sometimes 100,000 natives
gather at this shrine, bringing offerings to the value of nearly L40,000.

"The town has a population of twenty-two thousand, and it contains six
thousand lodging-houses for the pilgrims who visit it. The chief temple has
a hundred and twenty others in an enclosure, with a tower one hundred and
ninety-two feet high. Juggernaut's car, of which you have read, Mr.
Scarburn, is a sort of temple, thirty-five feet square, and forty-five feet
high, with wheels seven feet high. The car-festival is the chief of
twenty-four held every year, when the idol is dragged to the country house.
Though the distance is less than a mile, the sand is so deep in the roadway
that it requires several days to complete the journey.

"The idols in the temple are hideous-looking objects, with enormous eyes
and crescent-shaped mouths, the horns pointing upwards. But they are very
richly ornamented; for the idol has an income of over L30,000 from lands
and religious houses. It used to be currently reported and believed that
fanatical, crazy devotees cast themselves under the wheels of the car, and
were crushed to death, immolating themselves as an offering to the god. But
these statements have been strictly investigated, and branded as the
calumnies of English writers. Two distinguished savants have declared that
self-immolation is utterly contrary to the worship of Juggernaut, the very
unusual deaths at the car-festival being almost invariably accidental."

"It is a great pity that these horrible stories were ever poured into the
minds of children, and I am thankful that the libraries contain nothing of
the kind now," added Uncle Mo