A Rocking Shrine

The most wonderful temple in the world is built on a rocking stones on the summit of a mountain in norther India which is over 20,000 feet high. The rock weighs many thousands of tons, but is balanced on so fine a point that a comparatively light pressure is sufficient to make it sway. Hindoo priests teach their followers that this rock was placed in position by the help of the gods, and thus they add considerably to the feeling of awe which they desire to create.

Worshippers at this shrine must first make a perilous ascent of the mountain. Then they spend seven days of preparation in a temple built on the solid mountain before they are permitted to make the final passage to the mysterious rocking stone. To reach this it is necessary to cross a bridge over a great chasm, for nature and man have combined to make this Hindoo shrine difficult of access. After crossing the bridge the pilgrim mounts a ladder, to which he slings in terror for his life here and in the hereafter. The temple on the rock is necessarily small. Three priests officiate there, but its mysteries no man is permitted to reveal. Europeans have seen it only from a distance