PILGRIMAGES
208
PILKIXGTOX
pilgrimage to Mecca was interrupted for a quarter of a centurj bj the Carmathians, and in our own day il has been again interrupted by the Wahabis, and these in turn were defeated by Mohammed Ali, who revived the pilgrimage and attended with hia court. In the year 1873, 200,000 pilgrims visited the holy places. Bui in the present year (1877) pilgrimages to Mecca have been revived in marvellous force, owing to the e..in, -i of Turkey with Russia, and it is expected thai nearh one half million people, if not more, will bring tribute id the Kaaha, the treasures of which, amounting
to over 200, ,000 piasters, or $50, 1,000, have been
placed at the disposal of the sultan of Turkey, and are to be used in the defence of the Mussulman's faith.
Heathen Pilgrimages.— Among heathen nations, also, pilgrimages are practiced, tn Japan, more especially, all the different sects ha\ e their regular places of resort. The pilgrimage which is esteemed by the Sintuists as the most meritorious is thai of Estje, which all are bound to make once a year, or at least once in their life. An- other class of pilgrims are the Siunse, who go to \ isil in pilgrimage the thirty-three principal temples of Canon, which are scattered over the empire. Besides these regular pilgrimages, the Japanese also undertake occa- sional religious journeys to \ i-it certain temples in ful- filment of certain vows. These pilgrims travel alone, almost always running, and, though generally very poor, refuse to receive charity from others (comp. McFarland, Japan, p. '_'l L).
Hinduism lias its pilgrimages on a grand scale. Thousands and tens of thousands annually repair to the temple of Jaggernaut (q. v.). Equally lamed as tin- resort of multitudes of Hindu pilgrims is the island of Ganga Sagor, where the holiest branch of the Ganges (q. v. i is lost in the waters of the Indian Ocean. To visit this sacred river hundreds of thousands annually abandon their homes, and travel for months amid many hardships and dangers, and should they reach the scene o| their pilgrimage, it is only in many cases thai they may plunge themselves and their unconscious babies into the troubled but, in their view, purifying water-. offering themselves and their little ones as voluntary victims to the holy river. Among the numberless sa- cred Bpots in Hindostan may be mentioned Jumnontri, a village on the hanks of the Jumna, which is so famed as a place of pilgrimage that those who resort thither are considered as thereby almost entitled to divine hon- ors. The holy town of Hurdwar may also be noticed. to which pilgrims resorl from every corner of the Easl where Hinduism is known; and of such efficacy is the water of the Ganges at this point that even the guilti- est may be cleansed from sin hv a single ahlution. The
Hindus also attach great importance to pilgrimages to
the holy temples at Benares and other sacred shrines. Sometimes these are performed on sandals with small spikes inserted, every step causing pain to the pilgrim. In oiler cases, the whole distance of hundreds of miles is travelled by the infatuated fakir tumbling over and over, like a wagon-wheel, without ever standing on his feel i lor the greater the pain and Buffering with which the pilgrimage is accomplished, the greater is the merit attached to its performance. It often happens that poor pilgrims perish on the road for want of food, or in consequence of sufferings arising from the severe pen- alty which they inflict upon themselves. Bui instead of Ibis being a warning to "ihers. it is considered highly meritorious to fall in the effort t<> fulfil a vow made in honor of their idol gods. The Buddhists, though not so devoted to pilgrimages as the Hindus, are nol with- out their places ol sacred resort One of the most noted is Adam- Peak, in Ceylon, where Gotaraa Buddha is supposed to have left the impression of his foot The .summit of the peak i- annually visited by great numbers of pilgrims. Tin- Lamaists of Thib t also make an an- nual pilgrimage to Lha-Ssa for devotional purposes.
l»r. Johnson gives us some observations on pilgrim- age, which are BO much to the purpose that we shall
here present them to the reader: "Pilgrimage, like many "the r acts of piety, may he reasonable or super- stitious, according to the principles upon which it is performed. Long journeys in search of truth are not commanded; truth, such as i- necessary to the regula- tion of life, is always found where it is honestly sought ; change ol place i- no natural cause of the increase "I piety, lor it inevitably produces dissipation of mind. I Yet since men go every day to view the fields where great actions have been performed, and return with stronger impressions of the event, curiosity ol the same kind may naturally dispose US to view that country whence our religion had its beginning. That the Su- preme Being may be more easily propitiated in one place than another is the dream of idle superstition 5
but thai s e place- may operate upon our own minds
in an uncommon manner is an opinion which hourly experience will justify, lie who supposes that his vices may be more successfully combated in Palestine, will. perhaps, find himself mistaken: yet he may go thither without folly: he who thinks they will he more freely pardoned dishonors at once hi- reason and hi- religion" (Johnson's Rasselas). See Encychp. Brit.a.v.; <iard- ner. Faiths of the World, s. v. ; British Qua?: /,'• p. July, 1875, art. \ ; Mediaeval and Modern Saints, p. 112, 159; Baptist Quar. April. 1875, art. vii: Cutis. Scenes and Characters ofth Mi<l<lU Ages (Lond. 1873), essay iii : Lea. Sacerdotal Celibacy; Butler, Church History, i. 410, -117: Riddle, Hist, of the Papacy ,- Gieseler, Ecclesias- tical History; Mosheim, Ecclesiastical History, vol. ii; Walcott, Sacred ArchatoLs.v.