320 



HAUNTS AND HOBBIES 



the special varieties. Some of these go nearly entirel) 

 unclothed. Their faces are thickly daubed with paint; 

 their naked bodies are smeared with wood ashes. Thuj 

 decorated, with glassy eyes and lean, emaciated figures 

 they have an aspect inexpressibly repulsive. Occa^ 

 sionally it is such as almost to realize the mediaevc 

 representations of ghosts and evil spirits. 



There are numerous varieties of fakirs. Some ard 

 solitary, and live independently ; others associate ii 

 communities, and own obedience to a superior. At thd 

 head of these varieties in point of respectability arfi 

 the Goshines, at the bottom the Jogees. The Goshineg 

 have settled habitations, often engage in trade, anc 

 not unfrequently acquire considerable wealth. Except 

 in some peculiarities of dress, they differ but little froi 

 the ordinary secular population. 



To the Goshines the Jogees are an extreme contrast 

 They live always in the wastes and jungles, and mostlj 

 in small communities ; but they do not, I think, owi 

 obedience to any superior. They have no fixed abodes 

 but wander as their fancy inclines. Their appearance ii 

 to the last degree wild and squalid. Their long hait 

 hangs loose ; their dress consists of a strip of sackclotl 

 wrapped round their loins, and perhaps another broade^ 

 strip thrown over their shoulders. The Jogees are no\ 

 rarely seen, and as a sect they have sunk into insignil 

 ficance. Formerly they were the best known and mosj 

 celebrated of all the Indian fakirs. They were creditec 

 as, indeed, they still are, with the possession of magica 

 powers. In the most ancient of the Hindoo fairy tale 

 the Jogees as necromancers always occupy a conspj 



