356 IN THE VISION OF GOD
woollen cap which he was wearing off and on, the woollen
jacket and the bit of khaddar cloth, ho had no other dress.
He liked to have the body light so that he could freely run
on the hills.
As Ramdas ascended higher and higher he viewed a
most beautiful natural scenery that filled him with rapturous
delight. The ground was now all along carpeted with short
plants and grass, bearing multi-coloured blooms as though
fresh blossoms were sprinkled and strewn all the way for a
festive occasion.
The next stage of their halt was Vavjin. A few miles
beyond Phelgaon there is a place called Nilganga where the
pilgrims consider it holy to have a bath in the river. The
water of the river was very cold. Ramdas going up to the
brink of the river, where a crowd of pilgrims had assembled
for bath, divested himself of his clothing, and with a bare
kaupin on jumped into the river near its bank and had
three dips. When he came out of the water his body was
benumbed and stiff with cold. The pandits who accom-
panied him rubbed his body briskly with a woollen napkin
and dressed him again, and made him drink a cup of hot
tea which they were carrying in a thermos-flask. Onward
ran Ramdas followed by the pandits, and by evening arrived
at the high plateau of Vavjin.
Vavjin, in other words, Yayu Jin, that is Jinnee of the
hurricane, is a place where furious blasts of icy cold winds
are blowing at all times, often accompanied by rain. The
spot is therefore wet and chilly. Pilgrims with sparse warm
clothing suffered intensely from the cold here.
Here the first pandit escort invited RamdaB to his tent
for dinner, where he met an elderly man, an Inspector of
schools, in whose company Ramdas ascended a hill on the
plateau. The Inspector left Ramdas half way up and
climbed down, as the chill breezes were too much for him.
Moreover, it began to rain. Ramdas and Ramcharandas
scaled the summit of the hill and descended before dark.