3i8 HAUNTS AND HOBBIES 



He had been a clerk in a Government office. There 

 had been some family quarrel, he thought himself 

 aggrieved, and so, half in anger, half in devotion, he had 

 assumed the yellow dress and become a fakir — one of 

 that class of fakirs who for ever wander from shrine to 

 shrine, " whose home," as the Persian saying poetically 

 expresses it, " is where the evening finds them." 



As he told me his history, I soon perceived that he 

 heartily repented the step he had taken ; indeed, he 

 presently plainly told me so. He said he was weary to 

 death of his endless wanderings, and would gladly 

 return to secular life. I expressed my sympathy, and 

 then he asked me if, to enable him to do so, I would 

 bestow upon him some small appointment. There was 

 something in the man's manner and story that touched 

 me. Had it been possible, I would have granted his 

 request ; but, alas ! he had taken that step which there 

 is no retracing. The Hindoo who assumes the yellow 

 dress abandons for ever home, caste, and family ; cuts 

 himself at once adrift from all his former life. 



He presently took his leave, and went back to the 

 halting-place, where were the other travellers. He ap- 

 proached a party who were commencing their evening 

 meal ; there he seated himself at a short distance, and 

 contemplated them much in the manner of a dog 

 awaiting scraps from his master's table. No doubt, 

 when their own hunger was satisfied, the travellers 

 would give him any food that remained. 



The head policeman had gone off on some business. 

 He now returned. I pointed out to him the fakir, 

 and expressed some of the compassion his story had 



