306 TRAVEL, ADVENTURE, AND SPORT. 



" history " of these ascetics ; and when we get up 

 to Bishaba, of course the history is still more 

 prodigious. 



In practice the Jains are distinguished by the 

 greatest objection to the destroying of life, whatever 

 may be its form ; and one caste of them wear a thin 

 covering always over their mouths, in order to pre- 

 vent the destruction of insects. But even here the 

 Jains are not always quite consistent ; for they have 

 been known to show their horror of taking away life 

 by murdering Muhammadan butchers, and making 

 murderous assaults on boys engaged in fishing. Still 

 they have a remarkable desire to avoid the destruc- 

 tion of life : the stricter of them will not drink even 

 water unless it has been thrice strained ; and in 

 Ahmedabad, Bombay, and other large cities, they 

 support hospitals in which unclaimed aged and dis- 

 eased animals of any kind are provided with lodging 

 and a certain amount of food. Avoiding injury to 

 life of any kind is the first of their five great virtues ; 

 and after that follow truth, honesty, chastity, and 

 freedom from Avorldly desires ; and in these respects 

 they probably are superior to most of the people 

 around them, though they might be still better 

 without becoming very wonderful models of virtue. 

 Their essential ritual is of a simple kind, consisting 

 chiefly of a visit to the statue of some Ti'rthankara, 

 with salutation and short prayer before it. The 

 Jains are a very wealthy sect, and numbers of them 



