Then said the Wairágí: Now shall thou have emancipation from thy own ignorance, as to thy way to the Land of the Lotus of the Sun. And he stuck out at Umra-Singh his tongue. But Umra-Singh suddenly struck at him a blow of his sword, and as luck would have it, he cut off the end of his tongue. And he said to him: Beware lest I kill thee, thou old impostor. I will waste no more time expecting to hear from thee my way to the Land of the Lotus, but find it in spite of thee. Then the Wairági suddenly assumed a terrific form, and exclaimed: Woe to thee, thou unlucky Rajpoot. For thou art now in the land, not of lotuses, but of Rákshasas, of whom I am the chief. And my subjects shall beset thee with illusions, like the sins of thy former birth in visible form; and there wait for thee the Night-walkers, Ulupí, and the Cow-killer, and the Hairy Grabber, and the Icy Chiller, and the Flap-eared Buzzer, and the awful Watcher in his pits of sand, and others without number[7]: and even shouldst thou escape them all, and reach the Lotus Land, thou hast still to return. And he vanished with a shout of laughter, and Umra-Singh was left alone. [1] This term denotes one who has turned his back on the world, and become free from passion. Its meaning can best be learned from the third section of the Centuries of Bhartrihari, devoted to it. (_wair-_ rhymes with _fire_.) [2] _Jinn_, ogres, vampires, goblins, &c., are all but differentiations of the Hindoo Rákshasa, which is what the geologist calls a 'synthetic type' of evil being, whose special feature is its power of changing its shape at will (Kámarupa). [3] There is here an untranslateable play on the word _tripathagá_, _the three-way-goer_, i.e. the Ganges, which flows in three _Ways_--in heaven, earth, and hell. The hermit asks, as we might say, for _the source of the Nile_. [4] The proper word for caste is _játi, gens_. [5] Every Hindoo god or goddess has his or her peculiar animal vehicle (_wáhana_). [6] Pleasure and Joy, the two wives of the God of Love. [7] These names, which recall certain passages in the Rámayan, lose much of their effect in translation. _goghna_, 'coy-killer,' has a curious history. Because of old a cow could be killed _only_ for a guest of great honour, a word of the most horrible signification actually acquired one honourable meaning, i.e. a guest of a high order. VI. A Lotus of the Night