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from life, meeting near the ford of a river ; the one accompanied 

 by his faithful lark, nearly in the state of the ancient Gymnoso 

 phists; the mouth of the other covered with a cloth to prevent the 

 death of an insect. The next engraving represents a further 

 variety of these deluded fanatics, also taken from nature. 



Far be it from me to cast a general reflection on these men- 

 dicants, but respecting the majority, those who have had the best 

 opportunities of knowing them, will, I am confident, coincide in 

 Dr. Fryer's remark, made a hundred and fifty years ago, that 

 " most of them are vagabonds, and the pest of the nation they 

 live in: some of them dwell in gardens and retired places in the 

 fields, in the same manner as the seers of old, and the children of 

 the prophets did. Their habit is the main thing that signalizes 

 them more than their virtue; they profess poverty, but make all 

 things their own wherever they come. All the heat of the day 

 they idle it under some shady tree, at night they come in troops, 

 armed with a great pole, a mirchal or peacock's tail, and a wallet, 

 more like plunderers than beggars : they go into the market, or to 

 the shopkeepers, and force an alms, none of them returning without 

 his share. Some of them pass the bounds of a modest request, 

 and bawl out in the open streets for an hundred rupees, and no- 

 thing less will satisfy them. They are clothed with a ragged mantle, 

 which serves them also for a mattress; for which purpose some have 

 lions', tigers', or leopards' skins to lay under them; the civilest of 

 them wear flesh-coloured vests, somewhat like our brick-makers' 

 frocks, and almost of that colour. The merchants, as their ad- 

 ventures return, are bountiful towards them; by which means 

 some of them thrive upon it. These field-convenliclers, at the 



