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Updated: June 5, 2025
Perhaps his presence at the temple would avert whatever it was, that, like evil genii seemed to poison the air. There was a moving throng of pilgrims that poured along in a joyous turbulent stream toward the bridge. No shadow of the dread god, Omkar, gloomed their spirits; they chatted and laughed.
The girl broke, she clung to Barlow convulsively; sobs choked her. He clasped her tight and laid his cheek against hers soothingly, and said, "Gulab, what is it? Don't go to the Shrine of Omkar. Come with me to your people at Chunda, and if you do not want to remain with them I will have it arranged, through the Resident, that the British will reward you with protection.
Towering eighty feet above the temple spire was a cliff, and from a ledge near its top a white flag fluttered idly in the lazy wind. It was the death-leap, the ledge from which the one of the human sacrifice to Omkar leapt, to crash in death beside the Linga.
But you, little girl, you will be making your peace with Omkar and dreaming of the greater heaven." "Yes, it will be that way; the Sahib will not have the tribulation of protecting Bootea, and she will be in the protection of Omkar."
"And now, Gulab," he persisted, "if you thought I loved you would you kill the Missie Baba?" "No, Sahib, because it is Bootea's fault. It can't be. It is permitted to Bootea to love the Sahib, but at the shrine Omkar will take that sin and all the other sins away when she makes sacrifice " "What sacrifice, Gulab?" "Such as we make to the gods, Sahib." Then something curious happened.
I forbid such a cruel, wanton sacrifice of a sweet life." The Swami, taking a step toward the door, swept his long thin arm with a gesture that embraced the thousands beyond. "Captain Sahib," he said solemnly, "if thou wert to raise thy voice in anger against this holy, soul-redeeming observance thou wouldst be torn to pieces; not even I could stop them if insult were offered to Omkar.
It depressed him; it was such a terrible juxtaposition of frivolity and the gloomed shadow of idol worship that lay just the bridge's span of the sullen Narbudda: the gloomy, broken scraps of the long since deserted forts that cut with jagged lines the moonlit sky; and beyond them again the many temples with their scowling Brahmin priests, and the shrine wherein the god of destruction, Omkar, sat athirst for sacrifice.
But this is heaven; and perhaps Omkar, when I make the sacrifice I mean offering will listen to Bootea's prayers, and and " "And what, Gulab?" Barlow asked, for the girl turned her face against his breast, and her voice had smothered. Their thoughts were distracted by a din in front that shattered the solemn hush of the night.
From the amphitheatre of the enclosing hills thirty thousand voices rose in one thundering chorus of "Jae, jae, Omkar!" and, "To Omkar the Kurban!" Many pressed forward, mad fanaticism in their eyes, and held out at arm's length toward the girl bracelets and ornaments to be touched by her fingers as a beneficence.
Mendicants were in abundance prowling in their ugliness like spirits in a nightmare; some naked, absolute, others with but a loin-cloth, their lean shrivelled bodies smeared with ashes sometimes the ashes of the dead and cow-dung, carrying on their arms and foreheads the red and white horizontal bars of Shiva who was Omkar at Mandhatta.
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