themselves as the sacrifice, and one, whose name is not given, was accepted and slain before the shrine. There is little doubt, in spite of discrepancies in the story, that this human sacrifice was offered up. In old days this bloodthirsty goddess, under various forms and names, demanded frequent human victims, and it is only since the British Government has declined to allow the alliance of religion with murder, that goats instead of men are slain on her altars. The goddess approved the offering, and the subsequent career of Govind Singh and his violent death seemed foreshadowed in its bloody inauguration. The Guru now assembled his followers, and, assured of the sacred character of his mission and its success, began boldly to preach the new doctrine which was to supersede that of Nának as a political creed and unite the Sikhs, in the manner which Arjun and Har Govind had suggested, into a military nation. The old Sikh faith had a baptismal rite which had fallen into disuse. This was resuscitated by Govind Singh as the necessary initiatory ceremony of Sikhism. The páhul he administered to all his disciples present. The procedure was by the dissolution of sugar-candy in pure water which was stirred by a dagger. Over this certain verses from the Japji of the Granth were recited and the neophyte drank a portion, the rest being sprinkled on his head and body, while the baptizer and the disciple shouted 'Wah! Guruji ka Khálsa' (Victory to the Khálsa of the Guru)[1].
- ↑ The name of the new Sikh Commonwealth, the Khálsa, is,
