CHAPTER V
GOA FRONTIER -SUPA
(i) Orange robe counts for a badge of thieves'
Omvard they went until they reached Karwar where
tliey stopped at a dharniasliala. Next morning they resumed
their journey. About four o'clock in the evening they
sighted a river \vhich they had to cross. Here they wit-
nessed a wondrous spectacle. Thousands of men, women
and children had assembled on both the banks of the
river and still larger numbers were streaming to the spot
from opposite directions. On enquiry they learnt that in
mid-river were half a dozen crafts floating, and a famous
sadhu by name, SatcMUanancl, was in one of them, and the
large crowds of people had come for his darshan.
Each, pilgrim carried with him or her a cocoanut,
perfumed pastilles or agarbattis and some camphor, as
offerings to the sadhu. The devotion of these simple
country-folk was indeed marvellous. Truly, faith strikes
its deep roots more easily in the unsophisticated minds of
villagers than in those of the so-called civilized people of
the cities.
The river was duly crossed, and Ram das and Eam-
chai'andas reached in the evening a village where they
stopped for the night in the temple of a goddess. Here they
had come near the Goa province—a Portuguese territory,
the frontier lying a few miles off. Next day by noon they
arrived at the frontier. When they were about to pass the
gate, their progress was rndely arrested by a huge dog
which stood on the path, barking ominously at them. From
a hut, a few yards to tie right, a man called out:
"You cannot pass unless you give an account of your-
selves here—come here, both of you."
Accordingly, they went up to the hut. The man, a
Roman Catholic, vras the gate-keeper. He explained, on