In the accounts of the forms of Durga, and also in those of the other deities, if the writer of the book is commending Lakshmi, as in the last quotation, she is declared to be the source of all: if the book is in praise of Durga, she is equally declared to be the source. Unless this is borne in mind the varying origins of the deities become somewhat confusing. But when it is ascertained on whose special behalf a book was written, it may be expected that he or she will be described as the source, the greatest of all.

There can be no doubt that human sacrifices were

formerly offered to Kali, though now they are forbidden both by British law and the Hindu scriptures; the prohibition in Hindu books, however, is in a more recent class of books than those in which they were ordained. In the "Kalika Purana," [**] from which the following extracts are made, nothing could be clearer than the instruction regarding this cruel practice. Siva is addressing his sons the Bhairavas, initiating them in these terrible mysteries.

"The flesh of the antelope and the rhinoceros give my beloved (Kali) delight for five hundred years. By a human sacrifice, attended by the forms laid down, Devi is pleased for a thousand years; and by the sacrifice of three men, a hundred thousand years. By human flesh Kamakhya, Chandika, and Bhairava, who assume my shape, are pleased a thousand years. An oblation of blood which has been rendered pure by holy texts, is equal to ambrosia; the head and flesh also afford much delight to Chandika. Blood drawn from the offerer's own body is looked upon as a proper oblation to the goddess Chandika.

"Let the sacrificer repeat the word Kali twice, and say, 'Hail, Devi! goddess of thunder; hail, iron-sceptred goddess!' Let him then take the axe in his hand, and again invoke the same by the Kalaratri text, as follows: Let the sacrificer say, Hrang, Hrang! Kali, Kali! O horrid-toothed goddess! Eat, cut, destroy all the malignant; cut with this axe; bind, bind; seize, seize; drink blood! Spheng, spheng! secure, secure. Salutation to Kali.' The axe being invoked by this text, called the Kalaratri Mantra, Kalaratri herself presides over the axe, uplifted for the destruction of the sacrificer's enemies.

"Different mantras (or forms) are used in reference to the description of the victim to be immolated. If a lion, this--

"'O Hari! who in the shape of a lion bearest Chandika, bear my evils and avert my misfortunes. Thy shape, O lion! was assumed by Hari [in the Nrisingha incarnation of Vishnu] to punish the wicked part of the human race; and under that form, by truth, the tyrant Hiranyakasipu was slain!'

"Females are not to be immolated, except on very particular occasions; the human female never.