336 
A JOURNEY FROM MADRAS THROUGH 
CHAPTER 
V. 
July Iff. 
Customs of 
tile P cican at 
Jogies. 
when I send my interpreter, who is also a Brahman, to copy the 
dates, the Brahmans here pretend that their books are lost. 
The Pacanat Jogies belong to a tribe of Teiinga origin, that is 
-scattered all over the peninsula ; and in their own language they 
are called Jangalu. The proper business of their cast is the collect- 
ing, preparing, selling, and exhibiting of the plants used in medicine. 
As a guide in the practice of physic, they read the Vaidya Sas'tram, 
which is written in the Teiinga language; and they also study the 
Abara, which is the most approved dictionary, or school-book, in 
that dialect. They are 'Very poor, and go about the street, each 
crying out the names of certain diseases, for which he pretends to 
have a powerful specific. Their virtuous men, after death, are 
supposed to become a kind of gods, and frequently to inspire the 
living ; which makes them speak incoherently, and enables them to 
foretel the event of diseases. Medicine, in this country, has indeed 
fallen into the hands of charlatans equally impudent and ignorant. 
Such of the Jangalu as are too lazy and unskilled to practise physic, live 
entirely by begging. In whatever country they have settled, they 
can all, without distinction, intermarry ; which by their neighbours 
is looked upon as a great indecency, and as subversive of the purity 
of cast. They keep as many wives as they can ; and never divorce 
them, adultery being either unknown, or not noticed. They do not 
marry their girls till after the age of puberty. A widow cannot 
take a second husband ; but she is not expected to bury herself 
with the body of her husband. They can lawfully eat sheep, goats, 
hogs, fowls, and fish; and intoxicate themselves with spirituous 
liquors, opium, and hemp. They have moveable huts, which they 
pitch on the outside of towns, and wander about the country, selling 
and collecting their drugs. Asses are their beasts of burthen. 
They have no hereditary chiefs, but follow the ad vice of old men, 
who have, however, no power of excommunication. They consider 
Iswara and Vishnu as the same god, and, when in distress, pray men- 
tally to these deities. They offer sacrifices to Gangoma, Yettama, 
