Note 200 — Chapter I · NATURE POWERS.

The hill of Mahálakshmi in the Dahánu táluka is held sacred. The villagers consider it dangerous to ascend this hill.200 On the hill of the same name is a temple of the goddess Jivadhani, who is said to preserve children from small-pox. The following story is told in connection with the goddess. A person in need of money used to place before her image as large a heap of flowers as he wanted gold, stating that he would return the gold when he had done with it. He used then to go home and return on an appointed day for the gold, which was sure to be found where he had placed the heap of flowers. Once a man failed to return the gold, and thenceforth the goddess withheld her bounty. There is no door to the temple of this goddess. It is only through a hole in a big stone that one can have a view of her image. Sweet scent is said to be continually emitted from this hole. The goddess is said to have fastened the door of her temple for the following reason. One day the goddess was walking at the foot of the hill at night. A cowherd who happened to be there was bewitched by her matchless beauty and fell a prey to evil desire. He pursued her to the top of the hill, when the goddess, divining his motive, fastened the door of her temple with a prodigious stone. On the same hill is a cattle shed in which fresh cow-dung is said to be always found. This place being inaccessible to cows and other quadrupeds, the people believe that the goddess keeps a cow of her own.201