148 Abode of Gods

frighten people .... People, therefore, guard against them,
and have recourse to the personation and worship of the deities
as a safeguard against their influence."1

Amongst the most dreaded forms of ghosts is Masan, who is
said to exist in places where dead ladies are burnt, generally
at the confluence of two rivers. Ghantakaraena, or the
bell-eared, who is adored under the form of a water jar,,
and is supposed to cure skin diseases is another dreaded ghost.
His image stands at the entrance to many temples of the greater
gods. A similar and equally unedifying legend relates to Ganga,
Nath, one of the favourite gods of the Doms. He is said to be
very young and beautiful. Lower castes propitiate him. The
Doms regard him as the chief of their Gods Nirankara, the name-
meaning the formless. He is treated as a royal deity, though
no story of,human origin is told concerning him. He becomes-
incarnate into both men and women. Another strange deity,,
whose temples are found on mountain summits and in desolate
places, is Airi. He is believed to have a third eye and if anyone
is seen by him or he sees it, he instantly dies. He is accompanied
on his mighty rambles by a troop of goblins in various shapesr
and by a pack of hounds with bells attached to their necks. The
malignant spirit Rumiya is propitiated in the northern part of
Kumaon. He is said to roam at night from village to village on.
steads formed of huge boulders of stone, whose rambling and
clattering noise is heard in darkness and illness. He is of amorous-
propensities and women who attract his attention pine away, and
soon joins him in the spirit land.

Uttarakhand holds irresistible charm for those who want to
enter the secret apartment of demonism and Tantra. The strange
ceremonies still hold key to many secrets of the strange tantric*
cults, the interpretation of which is beyond ordinary comprehen-

1. .E. D. Atkinson, Himalayan Gazeteer*