In some portions of Central India there is at one period of the year a great amount of drunkenness and debauchery in every rank of society, and strangely enough this takes place, as of old, in connection with religious observances. These saturnalia have been referred to by several travellers and writers on India. Fraser in his tour to the sources of the Jumna and Ganges witnessed them in various places near the first-named river, and generally at the foot of the Himalayas. He says that the liquors drunk were manufactured from grains of various kinds as well as from the grape, and that the natives of all classes drank them to the accompaniments of music and dancing at the ceremony of bathing the images of their gods in the waters of the Jumna. The men kept on dancing all the day, and in the evening were joined indiscriminately by the women, who supported the dancing and revelry till the night was far advanced. This frantic kind of worship lasted for several days, until their liquor was exhausted. A more recent traveller has given a graphic and painful account of these saturnalia as they are practised at the present time.[77] He first witnessed them at Oudeypoor during the festival of the Holi which marks the arrival of spring, and says: “The carnival lasts several days, during which the most licentious debauchery and disorder reign throughout every class of society. It is the regular saturnalia of India. Persons of the greatest respectability, without regard to rank or age, are not ashamed to take part in orgies which mark this season of the year.” “Towards the middle of the month of Thalgun the revels reach their climax. Troops of men and women, wreathed with flowers and drunk with bang, crowd the streets carrying sacks full of a bright red vegetable powder. With this they assail the passers-by, covering them with clouds of dust, which soon dye their clothes a startling colour. No one is spared. The King and nobles throw off all restraint and give themselves up to mirth and revelry. The nautch girls enjoy unbounded liberty during the carnival They have special dances for the occasion, when all propriety is forgotten.” “Major Nixon advised me to go and see the sports.... Men, women, and children crowned with flowers appeared completely intoxicated. Never have I seen so revolting a spectacle. Groups of native wretches dead drunk were wallowing in the gutters, and at every step the most disgusting debauchery was exhibited with unblushing effrontery.” The writer witnessed and describes similar scenes, though not of quite so gross a character, at Rajnuggur in Chutterpore.