The visitor is told that the male figures are Mahadeva, and the female Kali: we could hear of no other deities.

I leave it to those who know Indian mythology better than I do, to interpret the meaning--or rather the past meaning, for I suspect it means very little now--of all this trumpery and nonsense, on which the poor folk seem to spend much money.

It was impossible, of course, even if one had understood their language, to find out what notions they attached to it all; and all I could do, on looking at these heathen idol chapels, in the midst of a Christian and civilised land, was to ponder, in sadness and astonishment, over a puzzle as yet to me inexplicable; namely, how human beings first got into their heads the vagary of worshipping images.

I fully allow the cleverness and apparent reasonableness of M.Comte's now famous theory of the development of religions.

I blame no one for holding it.