SO THE HINDOO MYTHOLOGY.

nies, in the hands of a secular person, are concluded in a
few minutes ; a person who has sufficient leisure spends an
hour in them. In the evening the officiating bramhun
goes again to the temple, and after washing his feet, &c.
prostrates himself before the door; then opening the doorc,
he places in the temple a lamp, and, as an evening oblation,
presents to the image a little milk, some sweetmeats, fruits,
&c. when, falling at the feet of the image, he locks the
door, and comes away.

At the temple of Shivii, on the 14th of the increase of
the moon in Phalgoonu, in the night, a festival in honour
of Shivu is kept: the image is bathed four times, and four
separate services are performed during the.night. Before
the temple, the worshippers dance, sing, and revel all night,
amidst the horrid din of their music. The occasion of this
festival is thus related in the Bhuvishwu-pooranu:—A bird-
catcher, detained in a forest in a dark night, climbed a
vilwu tree under which was an image of the lingu. By
shaking the boughs of the tree, the leaves and drops of dew
fell upon the image; with which Shivu was so much
pleased, that he declared, the worship of the lingu on
that night should be received as an act of unbounded
merit.

The worship at the temples in honour of the different
forms of Vishnoo, is nearly the same as that at the temples
of the lingu. Very early in the morning the officiating
bramhun, after putting on clean apparel, and touching the

* It is reported of some Hindoo saints, that when they went to the
temple to awake the god, while repeating the words of the shastru used
on these occasions, the doors always flew open of themselves; reminding
us of the European superstition, that' the temple of Cybele was opened
»ot by bands, but by prayers.'