The Vira Saivas illustrate their creed by a comparison quite in the Hindu style. They say, the guru is the cow: whose mouth is the Jangam or brother in the faith; and the lingam or image is the udder. The cow benefits its owner by means of the udder: but what fills the udder? the mouth. And what connects the mouth and the udder? the body. Accordingly if a Vira Saiva wishes the image to benefit him (that is, if he desires to obtain the favour of the deity), he must feed the mouth—that is sustain and comfort his brethren. And then the blessing will be conveyed to him by means of the teacher. Accordingly the Jangams blame the Aradhyas for neglecting this command, and ask how they can expect the image to nourish them if they neglect to sustain brethren and fellows in the faith, for the Aradhya refuses to look upon any but Aradhyas as brethren. The strangest part of their legends regarding Siva is that wherein he is represented in the most contemptible light as completely the servant of various worthies or saints. Such stories abound in the Basava Puran but are excluded from the Lila. In these, some personages are represented under most degraded circumstances, as obeying or waiting upon the saint whom the legend extols. Thus in the fourth book of the Basava Puran is a story of a certain “worthy” named Nambi, who by force of faith got Siva so completely into his hands that he employed the god as a mere slave. In another story one of the “worthies” scolded Siva, who was so much alarmed that he slunk round the other side of the image, and ran away into the jungle. Other stories represent this paltry demi-god acting either as a thief or as a receiver of stolen goods, to protect his adorers; and they frequently represent him as acting the part of a pander, at the bidding of one of the worthies. In apology for these stories Jangams allege that they all establish the necessity of faith as the great means of attaining happiness and miraculous power. “As the Brahmins,” say they, “call themselves gods upon earth, we will shew that our worthies are quite a match for them.” Accordingly there are many legends to prove that food or the leavings of food blessed by a worthy, can perform all sorts of miracles. For instance, a Brahmin, who, by a curse, had become a swine, ate what a Jangam had spit out and hereby resumed the human form. Elsewhere a Jangam’s shoe works miracles. * * * * * Ravŭnŭ was once carrying an ŭnadee-lingu from Himalŭyŭ to Lŭnka, in order that he might accomplish all his ambitious schemes against the gods, for it was the property of this stone, also called Kamŭ-lingŭ, to grant the worshipper all his desires, whatever they might be. Shinŭ, however, in permitting him to remove this, his image to Lŭnka, made Ravŭnŭ promise that wherever he let it touch the ground, there it should be set up.