ship by long years of austerities and extensive pilgrimages, took it into his head that he could still further exalt his fame by riding about in a sort of Sedan chair with the seat stuck full of nails. Four men carried him from town to town, shaking him as little as possible. Great was the admiration of his endurance which awaited him every-where. At length (no doubt when his condition had become such that he was for the time disposed to listen to some friendly advice) a rich native gentleman, somewhat skeptical as to the value and need of this discipline, met him and tried very earnestly to persuade him to quit his uncomfortable seat, and have mercy upon himself. But here let Mr. Cambridge give the reasoning of the kind-hearted native, and point the moral of the story. He says to the Fakir:
“ ‘Can such wretches as you give to madness a vogue?
Though the priesthood of Fo on the vulgar impose
By squinting whole years at the end of their nose—
Though with cruel devices of mortification
They adore a vain idol of modern creation—
Does the God of the heavens such a service direct?
Can his Mercy approve a self-punishing sect?
Will his Wisdom be worshiped with chains and with nails,
Or e'er look for his rites in your noses and tails?
Come along to my house, and these penances leave,
Give your belly a feast, and your breech a reprieve.’
This reasoning unhinged each fanatical notion,
And staggered our saint in his chair of promotion.
At length, with reluctance, he rose from his seat,
And, resigning his nails and his fame for retreat,
Two weeks his new life he admired and enjoyed;
The third he with plenty and quiet was cloyed;
To live undistinguished to him was the pain.
An existence unnoticed he could not sustain.
In retirement he sighed for the fame-giving chair.
For the crowd to admire him, to reverence and stare:
No endearments of pleasure and ease could prevail.
He the saintship resumed, and new-larded his tail.”
The reference in the third line—to “squinting whole years at the end of his nose,” is a serious subject, and will be explained hereafter.
Sometimes Fakirs will undertake to perform a very painful and lengthened exercise in measuring the distance to the “sacred” city of Benares from some point, such as a shrine or famous temple,
