They were bringing it in as a gift to the head man of the village, who was a thoroughgoing Mohammedan, and who held in contempt Hinduism and all its amazing ramifications.
The white priestess was indeed a puzzle; for, while the handful of Mohammedans in the village were fanatical in their belief in the true prophet and his Koran, and put little faith in miracles and still less in holy men who performed them, the advent of the white priestess deeply mystified them.

There was no getting around this: she was there; with their own eyes they saw her.

There might be something in Hinduism after all.
When the hunters arrived at the portico of the temple they found two greatly terrified holy men, shrilling their "Ai! Ai!" in lamentation and beating their foreheads against the earth.
"Holy men, what is wrong ?" asked one of the hunters, respectfully.
"The lion has killed our priestess; the sacred fires must die again! Ai! Ai!" "Where is the lion ?" "They fled toward the river, and there he has doubtless destroyed her, for in evil, Siva, represented by the lion, is more powerful than Vishnu, reincarnated in our priestess.

Ai! Ai! She is dead and we are undone!" "Come!" said the chief huntsman.

"Let us run to the river and see what these queer gods are doing.