odoriferous herbs and various flowers upon her head and around her neck: her resplendent body is penetrated with perfumes of various precious ingredients, such as musk, safran, sandal and amber, and bedecked with magnificent garments: in this manner, as was just described, she is to be represented. The worship of her form and appearance, the adoration and submission, ought to be internal and true; and the exterior veneration, to be paid before her image; moreover, all that has been divided into five sections and explained in the Yoga śastra, is to be performed with assiduity. The interior worship consists in representing her image, and in keeping her remembrance every where; the possessor of such an imaginative faculty and devotedness is called _bhakta_,[243] that is, “a possessor of gladness and of the mansion of perfect delight, and of _mukt_, or ‘liberation’ to be enjoyed in this mansion of a permanent happy existence.” The mode of this worship is contained in the _Agama_,[244] and the whole sect conform themselves to it. With them, the power of Mahadeva’s wife, who is Bhávání, surpasses that of the husband. The zealous of this sect worship the _Síva-linga_, although other Hindus also venerate it. _Linga_[245] is called the virile organ, and they say on behalf of this worship that, as men and all living beings derive their existence from it, adoration is duly bestowed on it. As the linga of Mahadeva, so do they venerate the _bhaga_,[246] that is, the female organ. A man very familiar with them gave the information that, according to their belief, the high altar, or principal place in a mosque of the Muselmans, is an emblem of the _bhaga_. Another man among them said that, as the just-named place emblems the bhaga, the minar, or turret of the mosque represents the linga: on which account both are found together. In many places and among a great number of the Hindus, this worship exists: a great many follow the Agama, in which wine drinking is approved, and if, instead of a common cup, a man’s skull (which they call _kapála_[247]) be used, the beverage is much more agreeable. They hold the killing of all animals, even of man, to be permitted, and call it _bala_.[248] At night they go to the places which they call _śmaśána_,[249] and where the dead bodies are burnt; there they intoxicate themselves, eat the flesh of the corpses burnt, and copulate before the eyes of others with women, which they name _śakti púja_:[250] and if the devoted woman be that of another, the good work is so much the more valuable, and it is certain that they offer their wives to each other; the disciples bring their wives and daughters to their preceptor; they unite with their mothers, sisters, paternal and maternal aunts, which is against the custom of the Hindus, who do not take daughters of their near relations. The author of this work saw one of the learned men of this sect, who read to him a book of modern composition upon their customs, and therein