[Legend of Jhâmbaji.] 2. “Another account of Jhâmbaji says that when a lad of five years old he used to take his father’s herds to water at the well, and had for each head of cattle a peculiar whistle: the cows and bullocks would come one by one to the well, drink, and go away. One day a man named Udaji happened to witness this scene, and struck with astonishment, attempted to follow the boy when he left the well. He was on horseback and the boy on foot, but gallop as fast as he would he could not keep up with the walking pace of the boy. At last in amazement he dismounted and threw himself at his feet; the boy at once welcomed him by name, though he then saw him for the first time. The bewildered Udaji exclaimed,—“Jhâmbaji!” (omniscient), and henceforth the boy was known by this name. On attaining manhood Jhâmbaji left his home, and becoming a faqîr or religious mendicant, is said to have remained sitting on a sandhill called Samrathal in Bikâner for a space of fifty-one years. In 1485 A.D. a fearful famine desolated the country, and Jhâmbaji gained an enormous number of disciples by providing food for all who would declare their belief in him. He is said to have died on his sandhill at the good old age of eighty-four, and to have been buried at a spot about a mile distant from it. A further account says that his body remained suspended for six months in the bier without decomposing. [The name of the sect.] 3. “The name Bishnoi is, of course, connected with that of Vishnu, the deity to whom the Bishnois give most prominence in their creed, though they sometimes derive it from the twenty-nine (bîs-nau) articles of faith inculcated by their founder. In fact, in our returns it was very difficult to distinguish the Bishnoi from the Vaishnava, who was often entered as a Baishnav or Bishno. The Bishnois sometimes call themselves Prahlâdbansi, or Prahlâdpanthi, on the ground that it was to please Prahlâda Bhagat that Vishnu became incarnate in the person of Jhâmbaji. The legend is that thirty-three crores of beings were killed by the wicked Hiranya-Kasipu, and when Vishnu, as the Narasinha Avatâra, saved the life of Prahlâda and asked Prahlâda his dearest wish, the latter requested that Vishnu would effect the salvation (mukti) of the remaining twenty-eight crores. To do this required a further incarnation, and Jhâmbaji was the result.” [Tenets of the Bishnois.] 4. “Regarding the doctrines of the sect Mr. J. Wilson writes:—‘The sayings (shabd) of Jhâmbaji to the number of one hundred and twenty were written down by his disciples, and have been handed down in a book (pothi) which is written in the Nâgari character, and in a Hindu dialect, similar to Bâgri, seemingly a Mârwâri dialect. The ‘twenty-nine’ precepts given by him for the guidance of his followers are as follows:—