A DEVOTEE. 
139 
prove the contrary. When they have submitted 
to a certain course of infliction, they demand eternal 
happiness as a right, having, as they conceive, esta- 
blished their claim by the sanctity of their penances, 
and these, as I have already said, are truly frightful. 
Some of them keep their limbs in particular posi- 
tions, until the sinews and joints become immove- 
able ; others chain themselves to trees with their faces 
towards the rising sun, in which position they some- 
times remain for years, if death do not release them 
from their torments, and are fed meanwhile by de- 
vout passengers, who throng to the scene of their 
sufferings, and offer them the most servile homage, as 
beings of superhuman endowments and untainted 
sanctity. Others nightly sleep upon beds composed 
of iron spikes sufficiently blunt not to penetrate 
their flesh; thus subjecting themselves to sufferings 
absolutely incredible. Others, again, bury themselves 
alive in a hole just capacious enough to contain their 
bodies, having a small aperture to admit the hand of 
the charitable passenger, who supplies them with 
food, and in this narrow grave they will continue for 
years. 
The man to whom I have alluded had stamped 
upon his emaciated body the seal of the first-men- 
tioned penalty. He had vowed to keep his right arm 
in a vertical position above his head for a certain 
length of time ; but when the term of probation had 
expired, the arm remained fixed, so that he could no 
longer use it ; the sinews were shrunk, the limb had 
withered ; the nails had grown to an enormous length 
quite through the hand, which was clenched, and 
