Every cultivator of the district prepared pots for the
conveyance of the water, with tripods to support them while they
rested on the road, that they might not touch the ground. The spot
pointed out for taking the water was immediately under a fine large
pipal-tree[l7] which had fallen into the river, and on each bank was
seated a Bairagi, or priest of Vishnu. The blight began to manifest
itself in the alsi (linseed) in January, 1832, but the wheat is never
considered to be in danger till late in February, when it is nearly
ripe; and during that month and the following the banks of the river
were crowded with people in search of the water. Some of the people
came more than one hundred miles to fetch it, and all seemed quite
sure that the holy water would save them. Each person gave the
Bairagi priest of his own side of the river two half-pence (copper
pice), two pice weight of ghi (clarified butter), and two pounds of
flour, before he filled his pitcher, to secure his blessings from it.
These priests were strangers, and the offerings were entirely
voluntary. The roads from this reach of the Bias river, up to the
capital of the Orchha Raja, more than a hundred miles, were literally
lined with these water-carriers; and I estimated the number of
persons who passed with the water every day for six weeks at ten
thousand a day.
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