ndstone formation capped with
basalt upon which here and there are found masses of laterite, or
iron clay. Nothing has ever yet been found reposing upon this iron
clay.[21] The strata of this range have a gentle and almost
imperceptible dip to the north, at right angles to its face which
overlooks the valley, and this face has everywhere the appearance of
a range of gigantic round bastions projecting into what was perhaps a
lake, and is now a well-peopled, well-cultivated, and very happy
valley, about twenty miles wide. The river crosses and recrosses it
diagonally. Near Jubbulpore it flows along for some distance close
under the Satpura range to the south; and crossing over the valley
from Bheraghat, it reaches the Vindhya range to the north, at the
point where it reaches the Hiran river, forty miles below.

Notes:

1. This is a slip, probably due to the printer's reader. There are no
chimney-sweepers in India. The word should be 'sweepers'. The members
of this caste and a few other degraded communities, such as the Doms,
do all the sweeping, scavenging, and conservancy work in India.
'Washerwomen' is another slip: read 'Washermen'.

2. The 'under-woman', or 'second ayah', was a member of the sweeper
caste.

3. The title Mir Sahib implies that Salamat Ali was a Sayyid,
claiming descent from Ali, the cousin, son-in-law, and pupil of
Muhammad, who became Khalif in A.D. 656.

4. The sweeper castes stand outside the Hindoo pale, and often
incline to Muhammadan practices. They worship a special form of the
Deity, under the names of Lal Beg, Lal Guru, &c.

5. No _avatar_ or incarnation of Brahma is known to most Hindoos, and
incarnations of Siva are rarely mentioned. The only _avatars_
ordinarily recognized are those of Vishnu, as enumerated ante.
Chapter 2, note 4.

6. This theory is a very inadequate explanation of the doctrine of
_avatars_.

7. 'Women . . . are most careful to preserve their hair intact. They
pride themselves on its length and weight. For a woman to have to
part with her hair is one of the greatest of degradations, and the
most terrible of all trials. It is the mark of widowhood. Yet in some
sacred places, especially at the confluence of rivers, the cutting
off and offering of a few locks of hair (_Veni-danam_) by a virtuous
wife is considered a highly meritorious act' (Monier Williams,
_Religious Thought and Life in India_, p, 375). Gaya in Bihar, fifty-
five miles south of Patna, is much