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154
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FAKIRS
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BOOK III
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cows
and other animals, which are dried by the sun, and with them they
kindle fires. They seldom use wood through fear lest it may contain
some living animal which would be killed—that which is used to burn the
dead is a kind of driftwood which does not engender worms. These young
Fakirs, having collected a quantity of these droppings mingled with dry
earth, make many large fires according to the size of the troop, and
ten or twelve Fakirs seat themselves around each fire. When sleep
overtakes them, they let themselves fall on the ground, upon which they
spread ashes to serve as a mattress, and they have only the heavens for
a covering. As for those who perform the penances, of which I shall
presently speak, when they lie during the night in the same position as
one sees them during the day, fires are kindled for them on either
side, without which they would be unable to withstand the cold; this
will be seen at the end of this chapter in the illustrations which I
give of the penances. Wealthy idolaters consider themselves happy, and
believe that their houses receive the blessings of heaven, when they
have as guests some of these Fakirs, whom they honour in proportion to
their austerity ; and the glory of a troop is to have someone in it who
performs a notable penance, like those of which I shall hereafter speak.
These
troops of Fakirs assemble in numbers to go on pilgrimage to the
principal pagodas, and to the public bathing-fairs which are held on
certain days of the year, both in the river Ganges, which they
specially esteem, as also in that which separates the territories of
the Portuguese at Goa from those of the King of Bijapur.1
Some of the most austere Fakirs dwell in miserable huts near their
pagodas, where they are given food, for the love of God, once in every
twenty-four hours.
The
tree, of which a picture will be seen at the end of this chapter, is of
the same kind as that near Gombroon, of which I have given a
description in the accounts of Persia.2 The
1 The Kistna, though it may be doubted if the authority of Portugal extended so far to the east and north-east.
* Namely the Banyan, Ficus Indica, Linn. The reference is to Book V, ch. xxiii, of the Persian Travels. See Curzon, Persia, ii. 421.
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