302 PIETRO DELIA VALLE AT AHMADABAD
wall of the city which is hard by, we beheld from that
height the little river call'd Sabenneti (Sabarmati),
which runs on that side under the walls without the
city. Upon the bank thereof, stood exposed to the sun
many Gioghi of more austere lives, namely such as are
not onely naked like those above describ'd, but go all
sprinkled with ashes, and paint their bodies and faces
with a whitish colour upon black, which they do with
a certain stone that is reduced into powder like lime. 1
Their beards and hair they wear long, untrim'd, rudely
involv'd, and sometimes erected like horns. Painted
they are often, or rather daub'd with sundry colours
and hideous figures; so that they seem so many devils,
like those represented in our comedies. The ashes
wherewith they sprinkle their bodies are the ashes of
burnt carkasses; and this to the end they may be con-
tinually mindful of death. A great crew of these, with
their chief, or leader (who conducts them with an ex-
travagant banner in his hand, made of many shreds
of several colours, and whom they all religiously obey)
sat by the river's side in a round form, as their cus-
tom is; and in the field there were many people, who
came some to walk, and others to wash themselves; the
pagan Indians holding their rivers in great veneration,
and being not a little superstitious in bathing themselves
therein. From the same place I beheld a little cSappel
built upon two small figures of Mahadeu, not upright,
but lying along upon the ground, and carv'd in basse
relief, where also were lamps burning, and people mak-
1 This powder is made from burned shells.
