Red garments are worn by all classes on this day, and at Jaipur clothes of this colour are presented by the Raja to all the chiefs. At that court the Tij is kept with more honour than at Udaipur. An image of Parvati on the Tij, richly attired, is borne on a throne by women chanting hymns, attended by the prince and his nobles. On this day, fathers present red garments and stuffs to their daughters. =The Nāgpanchami Festival: Serpent Worship.=—The 5th is the Nagpanchami, or day set apart for the propitiation of the chief of the reptile race, the Naga or serpent. Few subjects have more occupied the notice of the learned world than the mysteries of Ophite worship, which are to be traced wherever there existed a remnant of civilization, or indeed of humanity; among the savages of the savannahs[4.21.66] of America, and the magi of Fars, with whom it was the type of evil,—their Ahrimanes.[4.21.67] The Nagas, or serpent-genii of the Rajputs, have a semi-human structure, precisely as Diodorus describes the snake-mother of the Scythae, in whose country originated this serpent-worship, engrafted on the tenets of Zardusht, of the Puranas of the priesthood of Egypt, and on the fables of early Greece.[4.21.68] Dupuis, Volney, and other expounders of the mystery, have given an astronomical solution to what they deem a varied ramification of an ancient fable, of which that of Greece, ‘the dragon guarding the fruits of Hesperides,’ may be considered the most elegant version. Had these learned men seen those ancient sculptures in India, which represent ‘the fall,’ they might have changed their opinion. The traditions of the Jains or Buddhists (originating in the land of the Takshaks,[4.21.69] or Turkistan) assert the creation of the human species in pairs, called _jugal_, who fed off the ever-fructifying _kalpa-vriksha_, which possesses all the characters of the Tree of Life, like it bearing Ambrosial fruit of vegetable gold; which was termed _amrita_, and rendered them immortal. A drawing, brought by [581] Colonel Coombs, from a sculptured column in a cave temple in the south of India, represents the first pair at the foot of this ambrosial tree, and a serpent entwined among the heavily laden boughs, presenting to them some of the fruit from his mouth. The tempter appears to be at that part of his discourse, when ... his words, replete with guile, Into her heart too easy entrance won: Fixed on the fruit she gazed. This is a curious subject to be engraved on an ancient pagan temple; if Jain or Buddhist, the interest would be considerably enhanced. On this festival, at Udaipur, as well as throughout India, they strew particular plants about the threshold, to prevent the entrance of reptiles.