Colonel Vans Kennedy says that at the present day the whole of this ritual is not observed, nor is this worship performed in that costly manner which is recommended in the Purans. But the worship of all the deities consists of sixteen essential requisites:—1, _Asanam_, the preparing a seat for the god; 2, _Asahanam_, the invoking his presence; 3, _padiam_; 4, _achamanam_; 5, _Arghya_; 6, bathing the image; 7, clothing it; 8, investing it with a sacrificial string: offerings of; 9, perfumes; 10, flowers; 11, incense; 12, lamps; 13, naivedya, _i.e._ offerings consisting of fruits and prepared eatables; 14, betel leaf; 15, prayers, &c.; 16, circumambulation. The more of these acts that are performed the more complete is the worship; but at present it in general consists of nothing more than presenting some of the prescribed offerings, and muttering a short prayer or two while the lingam is circumambulated: the rest of the acts being performed by the officiating priest. This worship, it seems, need not be performed at a temple, any properly purified place will do; it is most efficacious when performed on the bank of some holy river, before a lingam formed of clay, which, on the termination of the worship, is thrown into the sacred stream. * * * * * Colonel Kennedy says:—“The legends respecting the origin of the worship of the lingam, cannot satisfy the philosophical enquirer; and the real cause, therefore, which produced the adoration of so singular an object might appear to be a curious subject of speculation. But, though in the Purans there are copious descriptions of the high importance of this worship, and of the spiritual advantages to be derived from it, still these works contain not the slightest indication from which any just conclusion could be formed, with respect to either the period when it was first introduced, or the motives which may have occasioned the substitution of this symbol for the image of Shiva. Yet it seems probable that this change had not been effected at the time when the Vedas were composed, and that the earliest record of this worship which has been preserved is contained in the Purans. But, as in those sacred books there is not the least appearance of its being either mystical or symbolical, it must be evident that if it originated in such causes they have long ceased to exist; and consequently that the speculations on this subject, in which the literati of Europe have indulged, are totally incompatible with the simple principles, as far as they are known, on which this worship is founded. For, in fact, both in the Purans and by the Hindus of the present day, the lingam is held to be merely a visible type of an invisible deity; and nothing whatever belongs to its worship, or to the terms in which this is mentioned, which has the slightest tendency to lead the thoughts, from the contemplation of the god, to an undue consideration of the object by which he is typified. But it is