"There is one prince, worthy of all reverence, who is perpetually drunk. He has been known to wander about in cemeteries and places for burning the dead, smearing his body with ashes, and wearing a necklace of skulls. He has five faces and three eyes; him ever contemplate with veneration." "Alas!" sighed Prem Chand to himself. "This unhappy youth must be mad!" "Then there is a princess, Kali is her name, worthy of all reverence. With a sword in her hand she killed many giants, and danced in ecstacy over dead bodies, till she found that she was dancing on the breast of her husband. Then seeing her mistake, she put out her tongue, and—" "Stop! Stop!" cried Prem Chand, in amazement and disgust. "Monsters such as these never existed in the court of our king!" "My favourite princess," continued Bandhu, "she in whose service I should always desire to be, is she who delights in the offering of a human head, and sacrifice of little children. There is another—" "I can hear no more!" exclaimed Prem Chand, rising. "With what wild dreams, like those caused by opium, has your brain been filled! Most earnestly do I assure you that in all these horrible fables there is not one atom of truth. If such fearful criminals as you have described have been ever found in the court of a virtuous king, they would assuredly have been handed over to the executioner. Crimes not to be tolerated in mean men, would not go without punishment in those of loftier ranks. Count you such beings worthy of reverence? Did such exist, they would be only worthy of detestation! O Bandhu! You must have eaten of the drug Superstition, and it is gradually destroying your mind, for it is as mould on the garment, or rust on the steel. Once more I earnestly entreat you to open the bag in which your treasures are doubtless concealed. Find from your bracelet whether to indulge such wild fancies be not sin, and from your mirror into what endless misery and ruin such sin must lead! Have mercy on yourself, O Bandhu! And let not the warning of a true friend be heard in vain!" "Leave me! I am weary of your unasked-for counsels!" exclaimed the weak-witted Bandhu. "If I choose to believe in a prince with an elephant's head or a hundred arms, what is it to you? If I choose to do puja to a monkey or snake, why should it trouble your peace? I believe but what millions believe; I do but what multitudes do." "And if multitudes, on a dark night, not seeing a precipice before them, fall over into the depths and miserably perish, shall I, who have light, calmly look on and not utter a word of warning?" cried Prem Chand. But he spake as to the deaf adder. Bandhu, even when the king's messenger was uttering his earnest appeal, closed his eyes in weariness, and in a few momenta dropped asleep. Prem Chand, breathing a deep sigh, a second time turned from the place. CHAPTER VII. ON PILGRIMAGE.