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Williams says that in Çiva's temple in Benares are kept monkeys (sacred to Vishnu).]
[Footnote 49: Between this and the last occur minor holidays, one to avert small-pox; one (February the 4th) sacred to the sun (Sunday, the seventh day of each lunar fortnight, is strictly observed); and one to the Manes.]
[Footnote 50: Fasting is not necessarily a part of civilized religion alone. It is found in the Brahmanic and Hindu cults, but it obtains also among the American Indians. Thus the Dacotahs fast for two or three days at the worship of sun and moon. Schoolcraft, Histor. and Statist., iii. 227.]
[Footnote 51: The last clause (meaning 'common historical origin') were better omitted.]
[Footnote 52: Except the mystic syllable (=O]m, supposed to represent the trinity ([=O]m is a, u, m), though probably it was originally only an exclamation.]
[Footnote 53: A small Vishnu festival in honor of Vishnu as 'man-lion' (one of his ten avatars) is celebrated on the 13th of March; but in Bengal in honor of the same god as a cow-boy. On the 15th of March there is another minor festival in Bengal, but it is to Çiva, or rather to one of his hosts, under the form of a water pot (that is to preserve from disease).]
[Footnote 54: The bonfire is made of fences, door posts, furniture, etc. Nothing once seized and devoted to the fire may be reclaimed, but the owner may defend his property if he can. Part of the horse-play at this time consists in leaping over the fire, which is also ritualistic with same of the hill-tribes.]
[Footnote 55: Compare the Nautch dances on R[ra]macandra's birthday. Religious dances, generally indecent, are also a prominent feature of the
