Eastern pilgrimages, be it across the burning desert, packed in the pilgrim ship, or over the glaciers of the Himalayas, can understand the intense religious feeling which throbs within every one of the poor souls who is undertaking this self-imposed task. Whether it is due to a sudden impulse which causes the workman to cast down his tools, hurriedly wrap a few necessities in a cloth, and join a party of wanderers already on the road, or whether it is the result of a lifetime of thought and saving for this one great penance, the spirit which permeates each individual is the same—one earnest, profound desire to reach the sacred spot or joyfully perish in the effort to do so. Follow in the wake of one of these great expeditions, strung out for miles along the mountain passes, and the lessons taught will supply much food for reflection. Of all the thousands who annually undertake these adventurous journeys, men, women, and children, old and young, the halt, the lame, the sick, aged, and even the dying, not one turns back, but, ever pressing forward with bright, expectant eyes gazing from their
