ROUGHING IT IN SOUTHERN INDIA 213 



of commonly in the newspapers, and every one is familiar 

 with them by hearsay. And yet, considering what these 

 people will voluntarily undergo, one wonders if there be any 

 limit to their powers of endurance. Neither wild beasts nor 

 human tormentors could be more cruel to them than they 

 are to themselves in their strivings towards a future life 

 and salvation, not in expiation of their own sins alone, but 

 in truly altruistic efforts for their fellows. Instances of 

 these martyrdoms for an ideal may often be seen in a village 

 street, where some emaciated creature is walking or limping 

 along, or rolling over and over on the ground. He may 

 have vowed himself to that, never to stand upright again. 

 Round about him the hard-headed, money-grabbing, prob- 

 ably knavish, populace watch his progress reveringly ; and, 

 thoroughly believing in their share in the benefits that ensue, 

 drop their pice ungrudgingly into his begging bowl — a cheap 

 salvation to them, bought with the other's blood and suffer- 

 ing. One such poor creature we saw at Manantavadi. He 

 was just passing through, on a three hundred mile pilgrim- 

 age (whither I have now forgotten), and, in accordance with 

 his vow, every yard of it was to be covered in the painful 

 way I have mentioned, namely, by rolling over and over 

 and over along the road, if there were any. When he should 

 come to an obstacle, such as a river, which by no amount of 

 will power could be thus traversed, he would have to be 

 ferried, or he might ford it, but he would be sure to choose 

 the route that would give him most trouble. He was a 

 shocking spectacle, hardly human, and now in years ; his 

 long rope-like hair tied in bunches, and full of ashes, which 

 he rubbed in as if road refuse and Utter were not enough, 

 was fastened round his waist ; blood, never wiped off, was 

 on his face and body, cut and lacerated as they were by 

 every flint or sharp thing that lay in his path ; of his gar- 

 ments hardly a whole inch was to be seen, and the poor 

 exposed frame was startlingly emaciated. But the eyes of 



