Note 170 — Chapter IV

These philosophers are not properly priests, nor do they belong to the family of the Brahmans, who, however, cause themselves to be received into all these four classes; yet they have nothing in common with the Gymnosophists, Samanæi, Yoguis and Gosua, who never eat with them, nor enter their pagodas or temples. The last-mentioned form also four different classes, for they consist of hermits; members who live in common, and possess certain portions of land; mendicants, or the gymnosophists properly so called; and Sanyasis (Senasseys), who all forsake their wives, and run about naked. All these philosophers, who, as already said, must not be confounded with the Brahmans, impose upon themselves penances which appear almost incredible. “Some of these people,” says Pallebot de Saint Lubin, vol. i. p. 25. “remain sitting on the ground so long that they are not able to move from the spot. Others keep their arms so long in an erect posture, that an anchilosis is formed between the joint of the arm and the shoulder-blade, and they are altogether incapable of holding their arm out straight. Some keep their hands always folded together; so that their nails grow through the flesh, and appear on the other side. Some drag after them monstrous chains; others support heavy beams in the air, and others roll themselves down from the tops of mountains, &c.” I myself saw one of these men who had a heavy chain suspended from his foreskin; another had stuck his head up to the neck in an iron cage, and a third had held his arm so long over the fire that it was entirely withered. The descendants of these philosophers have spread themselves to Tartary, where a great many of them are to be found: the Khutuktu of the Kalkasians, and the Dalai Lama of Thibet, belong to the same race. Besides the above-mentioned, there are also a great many other sects in India; such as the Pandaras, or Phallophori, of the ancients; who, at present, are known under the name of the Lingamists: also the Cabirs, Taders, Paramanghas, and others. These people are very improperly called Fakirs; for that word is not of Indian extraction, but derived either from the Arabic or Persian. A.