The Turbaned Superman 27
their accounts, along with other related terms. Bernier’s seventeenth- century
account is particularly enlightening :
Among the vast number and countless variety of Fakires, or Derviches,
and Holy Men, or Gentile hypocrites of the Indies, many live in a sort of
convent, governed by superiors, where vows of chastity, poverty, and sub-
mission are made. So strange is the life led by these votaries that I doubt
whether my description of it will be credited. I allude particularly to the
people called Jauguis, a name which signifies “united to God.” Numbers are
seen, day and night, seated or lying on ashes, entirely naked... . Some have
hair hanging down to the calf of the leg, twisted and entangled into knots,
like the coat of our shagg y dogs ... I have seen several who hold one, and
some who hold both arms, perpetually lifted above the head; the nails of
their hands being twisted, and longer than half my little finger, with which
I measured them... . I have often met, generally in the territory of some
Raja, bands of these naked Fakires, hideous to behold. Some had their arms
lifted up in the manner just described; the frightful hair of others either
hung loosely or was tied and twisted round their heads; some carried a club
like to Hercules; others had a dry and rough tiger skin thrown over their
shoulders... . Others again I have observed standing steadily, whole hours
together, upon their hands, the head down and the feet in the air. I might
proceed to enumerate various other positions in which these unhappy men
place their body, many of them so difficult and painful that they could not
be imitated by our tumblers... . Some of the Fakires enjoy the reputation
of particularly enlightened saints, perfect Jauguis, and really united to God.
They are supposed to have renounced the world, and like other hermits
they live a secluded life in a remote garden, without ever visiting town.
When food is brought to them, they receive it: if none be offered to them
it is concluded that the holy men can live without food, that they subsist by
the favour of God, vouchsafed on account of previous long fasts and other
religious mortifications. Frequently these pious Jauguis are absorbed in
profound meditation. It is pretended, and one of the favoured saints him-
self assured me, that their souls are often rapt in an ecstasy of several hours’
duration; that their external senses lose their functions; that the Jauguis
are blessed with a sight of God, who appears as a light ineffably white and
vivid, and that they experience transports of holy joy, and a contempt of
temporal concerns that defy every power of description.
...
I have now to give an account of certain Fakires totally different from
the Saints just described, but who also are extraordinary personages. They