ttlLKANT HILL ' 297
cliff as hand and footholds. They would often crumble
beneath his feet, but he never lost his balance. Eamnam
was being automatically repeated. The body was felt as
light as a dry leaf. Higher and higher he climbed with reck-
less haste. Down below, the sadhus were watching with
frightened looks his progress on the cliff. In less than
fifteen minutes he scrambled over the giant rock and
reached the top. He came upon a vast table-land, green
with fields and vegetation. He saw also a small hut at a short
distance and a hill-woman attending on a few cows grazing
on the pasture. When she saw Eamdas she threw up her
hands and cried in terror:
"Go away, go away, don't come near me."
"Mother, which is the way to Nilkant?-' Eamdas asked.
"It is far away from here. It is on the other corner of
the hill," slae replied in a trembling voice.
Eamdas turned in the direction pointed by her out-
stretched finger and faced a dense and dark forest. If
Eamdas walked through this forest he could come by the
shrine Nilkant at the other end of the hill. The long dis-
tance spoken of by the mother signified miles of forest. He
was prepared for the task. He would get the opportunity
to come face to face with wild beasts of the jungle. It
presented to him a most tempting situation. He knew that
it was a daring venture in which life and death had to be
counted as light as straw. He had also heard that naked
siddhas roamed over these hills. Eamdas would have their
darshan and company. He looked down from where he was.
The sadhus who appeared small in size from that height
were awaiting Ramdas1 return. At the top of his voice
Eamdas shouted to them to climb up to where he was and
also wildly beckoned them to do so.
"We can't do it," came the voice from the Nepali. "Come
down yourself; don't lose time."
"Turn back, both of you," replied Ramdas. "He intends
going to Nilkant."