CHITRA5CUT 155
ashrams called kutis, scattered over and ai-.^mi tiie bills
and the riversides.
From where they stood at the waterfall. Rarauas e&stiLg
a glance upward, saw the mountain rise still higher. He
was about to climb up when the bania suggested:
"Makaraj, there is a neat litte rest-house here,"" pointing
to the building, "what if \ve spend the night there'r"
Ramdas without reply, taking to a straggling path,
went up, of course, followed by the bania. He now came
upon a somewhat level piece of ground where stood
huts and an open shed. He entered one of the lints
fonnd in it an image of black stone dressed in female robes,
representing Sita. A sadhu was sitting near the image in
order to collect the pice offered to the goddess by the
pilgrims. It appears Sita was using the mandir as her
kitchen, hence it goes by the name—Sita-rasoyee.
The other hut was locked up."The bania sat inside the
open shed to rest his tired limbs. The hill was still higher up
by a couple of hundred yards. The whole place was thickly
covered with tall wild trees.
"RamjV* Ramdas said to the bania, "this place is best
suited for bhajanand so we shall stop here for the night."
He replied that the idea did not appeal to him and that the
idea was simply preposterous or something to that effect.
The sun had set and darkness was rapidly creeping on the
world. The sadhu of Sita mandir came out and saw Eamdas
seated on the root of a tree and the bania in the tiny shed.
"How, now," the sadhu said, 4Vhat are yon doing here?
Don't yon see it is getting dark?—let us go down.1*1
"Ram wills that Ramdas should remain here for the
night," answered Ramdas.
"Madness,'1 he muttered, "this jungle is haunted by
wild beasts and nobody is permitted to remain here in the
open in the nights. The shut up fcnti belongs to niy guru
who has gone down to the city for riddhi siddhi. It is his
order that none should be here in the night/'
20*