also have their heads shaved after bathing, and many of those whose parents are recently deceased celebrate the Sráddha, or obsequial ceremonies, on the sea-shore. After ablutions, the pilgrims repair to the temple dedicated to the divine sage Kapilmuni. This temple is under the alternate charge of a Bairágí and Sanyásí, mendicants of the Vishnuvite and Sivaite sects; the latter presides at the melá held at this place in the month of Kártik, the former at the melá in Mágh. They exact a fee of sixpence from each person who comes to the temple. The aggregate collection at Mágh was divided among five different establishments of mendicants of the Rámánand order, in the vicinity of Calcutta. In front of the temple was a banian (bar) tree, beneath which were images of Ráma and Hanumán; and an image of Kapilmuni, nearly the size of life, was within the temple. The pilgrims commonly write their names on the walls of the temple, with a short prayer to Kapil; or suspend a piece of earth or brick to a bough of the tree, with some solicitation, as for health, or affluence, or offspring; and promise, if their prayers are granted, to make a gift to some divinity. Behind the temple was a small excavation termed Sitákund, filled with fresh water, of which the pilgrim was allowed to sip a small quantity, on paying a fee to the manager of the temple. This reservoir was probably filled from the tank, and kept full by the contrivances of the mendicants, who persuaded the people that it was a perpetual miracle, being constantly full for the use of the temple. On the second and third days of the assemblage, bathing in the sea, adoration of Gangá, and the worship of Kapilmuni, continue as on the first; after which the assemblage breaks up. During the whole time the pilgrims, for the most part, sleep on the sand, for it is considered unbecoming to sleep on board their boats.’
Many attempts have been made towards cultivating Ságar Island, but with small success. I find from the ms record in the Board of Revenue, that as early as 1811, a Mr. Beaumont applied for permission to hold a hundred acres of land in the island for the purpose of establishing a manufactory of buff leather, and asked that all tiger-skins brought to the Collector’s Office might be made over to him for this purpose. His application to hold the land was granted by the Board of Revenue in November 1811; and in the following year, in consequence of a Government resolution offering favourable terms for the cultivation of Ságar Island, Mr. Beaumont applied for a grant of land on a cultivating tenure.
