A CHAPTER ON ANNUALS. 483 



words, as it was delivered in very imperfect English, which, though suffi- 

 ciently interesting to her, would not probably be so to read. 



" About fourteen years ago," began the Mussulman, as, soon as he had 

 obtained my permission to tell his story, " I was a resident in the town 

 which we are now approaching, and which was at that time (or rather the 

 neighbourhood) infested with those sanctified vagabonds who, under the 

 general name of fakeers, levy contributions upon the charitable, and, by 

 assuming an air of austere devotion, often contrive to render themselves the 

 stipendiaries of some of the most powerful princes in Hindostan. They 

 practise their duplicity upon the ignorance and superstition of their idolatrous 

 brethren with such ingenuity and success, that in numerous instances they 

 acquire an absolute spiritual dominion over them. They are at once the 

 greatest impostors and the most profligate scoundrels upon earth, being fre- 

 quently guilty of frightful enormities to obtain their ends, and some of them 

 are the most sensual wretches alive. '1 hey occasionally undergo the severest 

 penances, which they consider a complete expiation for the blackest crimes ; 

 and, finding absolution at all times within their reach, they hesitate not to 

 indulge in the grossest debaucheries, and when their souls are, as it were, 

 ulcerated with guilt, to avail themselves of the spiritual remedy. A certain 

 course of physical suffering wipes out all the record of past delinquency, and 

 they become, according to their barbarous creed, purified from its deepest 

 pollutions. 



" At the back of the town there was, at that time, a very old ruin, in 

 which was a small dark chamber hollowed out of the earth at the end of a 

 long narrow passage, and lighted only by an aperture in the corner of the 

 roof. The 'dim religious light/ thus admitted, like that of a solitary lamp 

 within a sepulchre, only partially illumined the vault, being just strong 

 enough to show the repulsive dreariness of this loathsome habitation, and its 

 lack of every thing calculated to administer to domestic comfort. This 

 gloomy recess was the abode of an Ab'dhoot,* who was reported to be a 

 person of such extraordinary sanctity, that he could cure the most inveterate 

 bodily diseases, and remove the most stubborn moral disorders, by only 

 breathing upon the patient, who was sure instantly to be restored to a sound 

 temperament, whether physical or spiritual, by the mere expirations of his 

 sacred breath. This disgusting piece of abortive humanity was of dwarfish 

 stature, and, although not old, shrivelled to a mere skeleton ; his bones pro- 

 truded so disagreeably, and the whole development of his meagre frame was 

 so distinct, that he might have been a perfect study for an anatomist. ( In 

 spite, however, of his stunted figure, nothing could exceed the sinister 

 expression of his countenance : it was perfectly demoniacal. At times his 

 eyes sparkled with all the ferocity of one of his own kindred asuras ; f at 

 others it mildly radiated with that expression of sardonic humility which 

 makes you fear while you detect the hypocrite. 



" This semi-monster bore the character of a person pre-eminently holy ; 

 and, to say the truth, he performed the severest penances, nor shrank from 

 the most excruciating self-inflictions, on which account he was so venerated 

 by the inhabitants of the town, that they visited him daily in crowds to 

 receive his benedictions, looking upon him to be little short of a divinity. It 

 was known that he had with him a beautiful Hindoo, who was the constant 

 partner of his cell, though seldom permitted to be seen ; indeed, she never 

 left her dreary abode but for water or some other domestic purpose. I had 

 seen her as she occasionally repaired to the river to replenish her gumlahs ; J 

 yet, whenever any one addressed her, she invariably maintained a stubborn 



* A sect of fakeers who go entirely naked. 



f Asuras are the evil spirits of Hindoo mythology. 



Water-pots carried on the head by the Hindoo women. 



