320 HAUNTS AND HOBBIES 



the special varieties. Some of these go nearly entirely 

 unclothed. Their faces are thickly daubed with paint ; 

 their naked bodies are smeared with wood ashes. Thus 

 decorated, with glassy eyes and lean, emaciated figures, 

 they have an aspect inexpressibly repulsive. Occa- 

 sionally it is such as almost to realize the mediaeval 

 representations of ghosts and evil spirits. 



There are numerous varieties of fakirs. Some are 

 solitary, and live independently ; others associate in 

 communities, and own obedience to a superior. At the 

 head of these varieties in point of respectability are 

 the Goshines, at the bottom the Jogees. The Goshines 

 have settled habitations, often engage in trade, and 

 not unfrequently acquire considerable wealth. Except 

 in some peculiarities of dress, they differ but little from 

 the ordinary secular population. 



To the Goshines the Jogees are an extreme contrast. 

 They live always in the wastes and jungles, and mostly 

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

 obedience to any superior. They have no fixed abodes, 

 but wander as their fancy inclines. Their appearance is 

 to the last degree wild and squalid. Their long hair 

 hangs loose ; their dress consists of a strip of sackcloth 

 wrapped round their loins, and perhaps another broader 

 strip thrown over their shoulders. The Jogees are now 

 rarely seen, and as a sect they have sunk into insigni- 

 ficance. Formerly they were the best known and most 

 celebrated of all the Indian fakirs. They were credited, 

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

 powers. In the most ancient of the Hindoo fairy tales 

 the Jogees as necromancers always occupy a conspi- 



