endicant--who had dishevelled hair and beard, and horrible tattooings
upon his face, and, what was most hideous, was his left arm, which,
withered and anchylosed, stuck up perpendicularly from the shoulder. His
closed hand, surrounded by straps, had been traversed by the nails,
which, continuing to grow, had bent like claws on the other side.
Finally, the hollow of this hand, which was filled with earth, served as
a pot for a small sacred myrtle."

Other fakirs hold their two arms above their head, the hands crossed,
and remain perpetually in such a position. Others again have one or both
arms extended. Some hang by their feet from the limb of a tree by means
of a cord, and remain head downward for days at a time, with their face
uncongested and their voice clear, counting their beads and mumbling
prayers.

One of the most remarkable peculiarities of fakirs is the faculty that
certain of them possess of remaining entirely buried in vaults and
boxes, and inclosed in bags, etc., for weeks and months, and, although
there is a certain deceit as regards the length of their absolute
abstinence, it nevertheless seems to be a demonstrated fact that, after
undergoing a peculiar treatment, they became plunged into a sort of
lethargy that allows them to remain for several days or weeks without
taking food. Certain fakirs that have been interred under such
conditions have, it appears, passed ten months or a year in their grave.

_Tortured Fakirs_.--Fakirs that submit themselves to tortures are very
numerous. Some of them perform exercises analogous to those of the
Aissaoua. Mr. Rousselet, in his voyage to the Indies, had an opportunity
of seeing some of these at Bhopal, and the following is the picturesque
description that he gives of them: "I remarked some groups of religious
mendicants of a frightfully sinister character. They were Jogins, who,
stark naked and with dishevelled hair, were walking about, shouting, and
dancing a sort of weird dance. In the midst of their contortions they
brandished long, sharp poniards, of a special form, provided with steel
chains. From time to time, one of these hallucinated creatures would
drive the poniard into his body (principally into the sides of his
chest), into his arms, and into his legs, and would only desist when, in
order to calm his apparent fury, the idlers who were surrounding him
threw a sufficient number of pennies to him."

At the time of the feast of the Juggernaut one sees,