and the plains on either bank, but none of the buildings are of much architectural merit.  The largest and best is the temple dedicated to Kamakhya herself, the goddess of sexual desire.  It is of the style usual in northern India, an unlighted shrine surmounted by a dome, and approached by a rather ample vestibule, which is also imperfectly lighted.  An inscription has been preserved recording the restoration of the temple about 1550 but only the present basement dates from that time, most of the super-structure being recent.  Europeans may not enter but an image of the goddess can be seen from a side door.  In the depths of the shrine is said to be a cleft in the rock, adored as the Yoni of Sakti.  In front of the temple are two posts to which a goat is tied, and decapitated daily at noon.  Below the principal shrine is the temple of Bhairavi.  Human sacrifices were offered here in comparatively recent times, and it is not denied that they would be offered now if the law allowed.  Also it is not denied that the rites of the “five m’s” already mentioned are frequently performed in these temples, and that Aghoris may be found in them.  The spot attracts a considerable number of pilgrims from Bengal, and a wealthy devotee has built a villa on the hill and pays visits to it for the purpose of taking part in the rites.  I was informed that the most esteemed scriptures of the sect are the Yogini Tantra, the Mahanirvana Tantra, and the Kalika Purana.  This last work contains a section or chapter on blood,[734] which gives rules for the performance of human sacrifices.  It states however that they should not be performed by the first three castes, which is perhaps a way of saying that though they may be performed by non-Aryans under Brahmanic auspices they form no part of the Aryan religion.  But they are recommended to princes and ministers and should not be performed without the consent of princes.  The ritual bears little resemblance to the Vedic sacrifices and the essence of the ceremony is the presentation to the goddess of the victim’s severed head in a vessel of gold, silver, copper, brass or wood but not of iron.  The axe with which the decapitation is to be performed is solemnly consecrated to Kali and the victim is worshipped before immolation.  The sacrificer first thinks of Brahma and the other gods as being present in the victim’s body, and then prays to him directly as being all the gods in one.  “When this has been done” says Siva, who is represented as himself revealing these rules, “the victim is even as myself.”  This identification of the human victim with the god has many analogies elsewhere, particularly among the Khonds.[735]