74 
SCENES IN INDIA. 
him to enter the tent, which he immediately clid., and 
to my surprise was very communicative. The iron 
through his tongue and cheeks had been a penitential 
infliction to which he had submitted in consequence 
of the breach of a vow. He declined my invitation 
to seat himself, but stood erect with his back against 
the pole of the tent and entered freely into conversa- 
tion upon the strange events of his life., answering 
all my questions with the most perfect readiness., and 
he appeared gratified at giving me any information 
either respecting himself or the singular customs of 
the religious fraternity to which he belonged. 
He stated that he was then under a vow to remain 
erect for the space of fifteen years. During thir- 
teen of this term he had either stood or walked ; yet 
he suffered little or no inconvenience, sleeping every 
night in the jungles with his back against a tree as 
soundly as the most voluptuous man could upon a 
bed of down. He confessed, however, that for some 
time after he had commenced the performance of this 
strange vow he was obliged to be supported with 
cords when inclined to sleep, and his feet swelled to 
such a painful degree that he could scarcely stand or 
walk. After a time, however, this inconvenience 
ceased, when the performance of his penance became 
no longer either a pain or a grief to him. 
This was not the only infliction to which he had 
voluntarily subjected himself; the fingers of his left 
hand were so completely bent upward from the palm 
as to form a right angle with the back of the hand, and 
were thus rendered entirely useless. He further told 
me that he had been suspended from the branch of a 
