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30 TILE UNKNOWN SITE OF JESUS CHRIST. place le changed his mosle of travel and securca sadJlc-horscs.
I will licrc relate an experience which M. Notovitch had at the little hamlet where lic halted to rest and lunch, and where provisions and all sorts of merchandise were soldi. Ile approacliecl i llincu, who was squatted bcforc a kettle of boiling milk and after having cxamince it somewhat cautiously to be sure that it was milk, he wanted to purchase a glassful of it, whereupon the merchant olícrce him the keltic and its contents; at this our traveler remonstrated, saying that he only dcsired one glass of it; it was there that he Icarned his first lesson in orthodox Brahminism. "According to our laws," said the Hindu, "if a stranger or one not bclonging to our castc, touches, grazcs or points his finger at our food, by such act it is polluted and we cannot cat it. We must, not only throw it away, but must thoroughly cleansc and purify the utensil." This will, of coursc, sceni perscctly absurd to the people of the West, but there are, I may add, decp metaphysical laws uncierlying many of these seemingly useless ccreinonies, which would not be understood by the reader withont a thorough study. I will not, thercíorc, attempt to explain them here.
M. Notovitch resiumed his journey and reached next cuching the celebrated valley of Kasumir. This "happy vallcy" is situated between the ranges of the Himalaya mountains and is about ciglity-five miles long and twenty-five wide, through the length of which wind in a serpentine course the sparkling waters of the river Thclum.
This valley is, 10 Joubt, the most beautiful in the Worll, with its placid lakes, its sparkling rivers (on which are hundreds of Noating houses, in which live as many families the year round), its fairy-like gardens
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