of it. During the day it remains unused, but at night the ascetic fills it with Ganga water for his ablutions. An accidental death has turned me into an evil spirit, and during the day I have to live in the torments of hell, but during the night I enjoy the bliss of heaven, for then my skull contains the holy water. What you have seen is my nightly court, where, empowered by Yama, I administer Justice to those departed spirits who have been wronged by their fellow spirits. Now, my dear Lochan, do one thing for me and I will make you the master of immense wealth. Visit the ascetic's abode, and somehow or other take my skull thence and throw it into the Ganges. Then this supremacy that you now see me enjoying will be perpetual, and I shall never lose the joys of heaven."
Lochan gladly agreed to his uncle's request, and was that very night borne by two spirits in human shape to the hut of the ascetic. Here Lochan carried out his uncle's orders and was thence taken to the cave of a mountain near Madras. The cave was filled with gold mohurs, and very costly gems, which the spirits placed in baskets, and lifted up in their hands. They then told Lochan to shut his eyes, and in a trice he was carried to his home in the Burdwan District. There he and his family lived as happily as possible, his chief delight being to send out bands of men chanting mother Ganga's praises.
The scene of the second incident illustrating the saving and sanctifying power of the river Ganges is said to have happened in the recesses of a forest in southern Bengal, the chief actors being certain evil spirits of dead women, known as Shankchoornis. The narrator of the incident says that on a day of pilgrimage to Ganga Sagar[1] a man was wending his way along the outskirts of a particular forest, when his ears caught sounds of rejoicing in the distance. There were shouts, huzzas, the sounds of conch-shells, and the far resounding cries of women. The traveller passed by, and reached the
- ↑ The place where the Ganges meets the Bay of Bengal.
