d other little
offices of the same natures; but this is only his public employment, as
a reward for which, he is entitled to have the lady as often as he
pleases at a place of retirement sacred to themselves, where no person
not even the most intrusive husband must enter, to be witness of what
passes between them. This has been considered by people of other
nations, as a custom not altogether consistent with chastity and purity
of manners; the Italians themselves however, endeavor to justify it in
their conversations with strangers, and Baretti has of late years
published a formal vindication of it to the world. In this vindication
he has not only deduced the original of it from pure Platonic love, but
would willingly persuade us that it is still continued upon the same
mental principles; a doctrine which the world will hardly be credulous
enough to swallow, even though he should offer more convincing arguments
to support it than he has already done.

NAKED FAKIERS

So different over all the world are the sects of saints as well as of
sinners, that besides the Bramins, a set of innocent and religious
priests, who have rendered their women virtuous by treating them with
kindness and humanity, there are another sect of religio-philosophical
drones, called Fakiers, who contribute as much as they can to debauch
the sex, under a pretence of superior sanctity. These hypocritical
saints, like some of the ridiculous sects which formerly existed in
Europe, wear no clothes; considering them only as proper appendages to
sinners, who are ashamed, because they are sensible of guilt; while
they, being free from every stain of pollution, have no shame to cover.
In this original state of nature, these idle and pretended devotees,
assemble together sometimes in armies of ten or twelve thousand, and
under a pretence of going in pilgrimage to certain temples, like locusts
devour every thing on their way; the men flying before them, and
carrying all that they can out of the reach of their depredations; while
the women, not in the least afraid of a naked army of lusty saints,
throw themselves in their way, or remain quietly at home to receive
them.

It has long been an opinion, well established all over India, that there
is not in nature so powerful a remedy for removing the sterility of
women, as the prayers of these sturdy naked saints. On this account,
barren women constantly apply to them for assistance; which when the
good nature