rom a severe
illness, in which he had, by his unremitting attention, been the means
of saving his life. When he found who it was he was required to kill,
he returned the money and informed Jahan Khan, that he might be on
his guard. Jahan Khan called for the men who had hired the assassin,
expostulated with them for their ingratitude for the benefits they had
received in the hospital, and, when they expressed their contrition,
freely forgave them, and now they are his staunch partisans.

CHAPTER XVII

THE HINDU ASCETICS

The Hindu Sadhus more than two thousand years ago much
as to-day--Muhammadan faqirs much more recent--The Indian
ideal--This presents a difficulty to the missionary--Becoming
a Sadhu--An Afghan disciple--Initiation and equipment--Hardwar
the Holy--A religious settlement--Natural beauties of the
locality--Only man is vile--Individualism versus altruism--The
Water God--Wanton monkeys--Tendency to make anything unusual
an object of worship--A Brahman fellow-traveller--A night in a
temple--Waking the gods--A Hindu sacrament--A religious Bedlam--A
ward for imbeciles--Religious delusions--"All humbugs"--Yogis
and hypnotism--Voluntary maniacs--The daily meal--Feeding, flesh,
fish, and fowl.

All the travellers and tourists who have recorded their experiences
of India mention the strange, fantastic, ochre-habited ascetics
who are met with in town and village, by the roadside and at
fairs--nay, even in the modern railway-station, where they seem
strangely out of place. But few have cared to cultivate their more
intimate acquaintance; they have little in them that is attractive
to the Western eye, and often appear absolutely repulsive. Yet,
to a missionary at least, there is a fascination about them. They
embody the religious ideals of the East, and carry one back to the
hoary past, long before Alexander marched into India, when the same
enigmas of life were puzzling the mystical mind of the East, and the
same Sadhus were seeking their solution in her trackless jungles and
beside her mighty rivers. Sadhus, I say, because then there were no
faqirs. Faqirs are of comparatively recent origin, dating from the
time of the Muhammadan invasions, about the tenth century of our
era. Now the distinction is often lost sight of. The word "faqir"
is an Arabic one, and denotes a Muhammadan ascetic; while the word
"Sadhu" is Sanskrit, and is best retained for the