one hand she holds a sword, and in another a human head. Her hair is
dishevelled, reaching down to her feet. Her countenance is most
ferocious. Her tongue comes out of her mouth, and hangs over her chin.
She has three eyes, red and fiery. Her lips and eyebrows are streaked
with blood. She has two dead bodies for ear-rings, and wears a girdle
around her loins--a girdle made of bloody hands, which she cut off from
the bodies of her enemies. She has a necklace of skulls, which she took
from the bodies of the giants and others killed by her.

[Illustration]

Of all the Hindoo divinities, this goddess is the most cruel and
revengeful. Such is her thirst for blood, that being unable at one time
to procure any giants for her prey, in order to quench her thirst, she
cut her own throat, that the blood issuing thence might spout into her
mouth. Different acts of worship are performed to appease her. If, for
example, a devotee should burn his body, by applying a burning lamp to
it, it would be very pleasing to her. If he should draw some of his
blood and give it to her, or if he should cut off a piece of his flesh
and offer it as a burnt-offering, she would be still move pleased. If he
should present _whole_ burnt-offerings upon the altar, saying, "Hrang,
brang, Karle, Karle! O, horrid-toothed goddess, eat, eat; destroy all
the malignant: cut with this axe; bind, bind; seize, seize; drink this
blood; spheng, spheng; secure, secure; salutation to Karle," she would
be much delighted. It is said that she will be pleased for three months,
if the people offer her the blood of a crocodile--for a thousand years,
if they offer her the blood of one man, and a hundred thousand years, if
they offer her the blood of three.

This goddess is the patroness of thieves. To her they pay their