Tod

saw a Virigi who had stood upright for 37 years between cro bars. We have also seen one or two whose nails had grown through their hands, They believe that these tortures please Siva as the “great ascetic,” and that they will thereby escape all sorrows hereafter, Bakr. Arabic: “cow.” The Indian Moslems sacrifice a cow at the ’Id el Bakr or “feast of the cow,” which commemorates Abraham’s sacrifice of Ishm’ael (instead of the Hebrew story of the sacrifice of Isaac and the substituted ram). It is remarkable that this feast is unknown in other Moslem countries; and it naturally gives great offence to Hindus. Bakkhos. Among Greeks the licentious Dionisos, youthful, beautiful, but vinous—a son of Zeus and Semélé. The meaning of the word is very doubtful. The The bans symbolised him as a pillar or menhir stone: at Corinth, a Pelasgik city, he was worshiped as a phallos of gold six cubits high, with a star on the top. In the Bacchic proce ions huge phalli were also carried, drawn in a chariot by bulls, and surrounded by shouting youths, maids, and matrons, with chants and the sound of guitars, and the jingling sistrum. The women carried cornucopias full of flowers and fruits, with golden shields, and feminine emblems (compare Rev. T. Maurice in Indian Antiq., vii, 516), The leading bull wore a frontlet, collar, and crown of gold. Yet, in the mysteries, the followers of this vintage god ' pledged themselves to a life of virtue, if not of asceticism; and their Lord was said to have healed the sick, prophesied, and wrought miracles, Pitchers of water left at the temple of Bakkhos were believed | to be turned to wine, especially in the island of Andros (Pausanias, vi, 26; Pliny, H.N, ii, 106, xxx i, 13). 270