of Mahadēo, and penetrated to Bhyramghattee, where the J'hannevie meets the Bhagiruttee, but could not find him. Eleven of them, in despair, went to Cashmire, but the twelfth, named Jum-Rekhī, remained at Bhyramghattee, sitting on a huge rock in the course of the stream Bhagiruttee, which, instead of flowing on as usual, was absorbed in the body of the saint and lost, while the J'hannevie flowed on. The goddess of the stream (Bhagiruttee) herself was at Gungotrī, worshipping Mahadēo, and making her prostrations on the stone on which the present temple is founded. When she felt the course of the stream was stopped, she went in wrath to Bhyramghattee, clave Jum-Rekhī in two, and gave a free passage to the river. One-half of the Rekhī she flung to the westward, and it became the mountain Bandarponch: from his thigh sprang the Jumna, and from his skull arose the hot springs of Jumnotrī. They still show the large rock which the Rikh sat upon, and which was divided in two by the same fatal cut. It is a very large block of granite, which appears to have fallen from the cliff, above the point of union of the two rivers, and is curiously split in two.
The name of Bandarponch applies properly only to the highest peaks of this mountain. Jumnotrī has reference to the sacred spot, where worship is paid to the goddess and ablution performed.
Frazer, speaking of a glen about three days' journey from Jumnotrī, says, "Having reached the top of the ascent, we looked down upon a very dark and deep glen, called Palia Gadh, which is the outlet to the waters of one of the most terrific and gloomy valleys I have ever seen. It would not be easy to convey by any description a just idea of the peculiarly rugged and gloomy wildness of this glen: it looks like the ruins of nature, and appears, as it is said to be, completely impracticable and impenetrable. Little is to be seen except dark rocks, wood only fringes the lower parts and the water's edge: perhaps the spots and streaks of snow, contrasting with the general blackness of the scene, heighten the appearance of desolation. No living thing is seen; no motion but that of the waters; no sound but their roar Such a spot is suited to engender super-
