other receptacles. These
were the kitchens established by pious Hindus of various parts of
India with the object of acquiring sufficient merit to counterpoise
their demerits--the bribery, chicanery, and lying of their offices,
or the more covert sins of their private life. A rich Hindu may
establish a kitchen in his own name alone, but more often a number
unite together to form a guild to keep the kitchen going, and the
merit is portioned out like the dividends of a joint-stock company
to its shareholders. There were some twenty or more of such kitchens
here, in each of which three chapattis and a modicum of dal, potatoes,
greens, or some other vegetable were given; and there was nothing to
debar a Sadhu from going to as many kitchens as he desired--in fact,
he knew he was conferring a benefit on the shareholders by consuming
their victuals and supplying them thereby with merit.

The gnawing pangs of hunger made me mingle with the shoving, jostling
throng, and hurry from kitchen to kitchen till I had accumulated
nine chapattis, and vegetables in proportion. Modesty then made me
withdraw, but not so most of my companions. One of these who rejoined
me a little later had been to eight kitchens, and brought a supply of
twenty-four chapattis, and a large bowl of dal, potatoes, and other
vegetables. The custom of the place then required me to descend to
the margin of the Ganges, and, squatting on a stone which was lapped
by its pellucid waters, to consume my portion with draughts of the
holy water. But not without a preliminary ceremony, for while the
Sadhus had been collecting round the kitchens, the cows and bulls
had been collecting on the banks of the river, and it was de rigueur
first to set aside three portions, and give one to these holy animals,
a second portion to the birds in the air, and a third to the fish in
the river, after which the remainder, whether one chapatti or twenty,
might be consumed with an easy conscience and a courageous digestion.

CHAPTER XVIII

SADHUS AND FAQIRS

Buried gold--Power of sympathy--A neglected field--A Sadhu
converted to Christianity--His experiences--Causes of the
development of the ascetic idea in India--More unworthy motives
common at the present time--The Prime Minister of a State becomes a
recluse--A cavalry officer Sadhu--Dedicated from birth--Experiences
of a young Sadhu--An unpleasant bed-fellow--Honest toil--Orders of
Muhammadan as