'Collections of travels through Turky into Persia, and the East Indies. Giving an account of the present state of those countries, as also a full relation of the five years wars, between Aureng-Zebe and his brothers in their father's life time, about the succession. And a voyage made by the Great Mogul (Aureng-Zebe) with his Army from Dehli to Lahor, from Lahor to Bember, and from thence to the Kingdom of Kachemire, by the Mogols, call'd, the Paradise of the Indies. Together with a relation of the Kingdom of Japan and Tunkin, and of their particular manners and trade. To which is added a new description of the Grand Seignior's Seraglio, and also of all the Kingdoms that encompass the Euxine and Caspian Seas, being the travels of Monsieur TavernierBernier, and other great men.' [‎102] (773/1024)

l [be Gentiles of Indoftan.
haked, with their black skin, long Hair,dried Arms, and in the pofture mention’d, and
with crooked Nails.
I have often met in the Field, efpecially upon the Lands of the wnole fqua-
drons of thefe Faquires^ altogether naked, dreadful to behold. Some held their Arms
lifted up in the pofture mention’d others had their terrible Hair hanging about them,
orelfe they had wreathed them about their Head i Lome had a kind ot Hercules s Club
in their Hand i others had dry and ftiff Tiger-skins over their Shoulders. I faw them
pafs thus quite naked, without any fliame, through the midR of a great Bur rough, i
admired how Men, Women, and Children could look upon them fo indifferently,with
out being moved no more than if we fhould fee pafs fome Eremite through our Iheets i
and how the Wqrnen brought them almes with much devotion, taking them for very
holy Men, much wifer and better than others. ^ ri . ,
1 have feen for a long while a very famous one in Veblf caked Sarmet, who went
thus ffark naked along the fireets, and who at length would rather fufTer his Necii to
berntnff than to out on any deaths, what promifes or menaces foever Aftreng-Zebe
might fend to him. _ , ,
I have feen m^iy of them, who out of devotion went long Pilgrimages, notomy al
together naked, but charged with Iron-chains, like thofe that are put about the Legs
of Elephants. Others, who, out of a particular vow. Rood for (even or eight day’s up
right upon their Legs, which thereupon fwell’d as big as their Thighs, without fitting
or lying down, or without repofing themfelves other wife than by leaning fome hours of
the night upon a Rretched Cord: Others, who flood for whole hours upon their Hands
without wavering, the Head down, and the Feet upward : And fo of many others forts
of pofluresfo conflrain’d, and fo difficult, that we have no Tumbler able to immitate
them i and all this it feems upon the accourft of Religion, of which yet their appears
not the leafl fhadow in it. -
All thefe fo extraordinary things did (to tell you the truth ) exceedingly lurprize me
at firfl, 1 knew not what tofay or think of it. Sometimes I look’d upon them as a re
mainder, or rather as the Authors of that antient and infamous Sed of the Cynkbs, but
only that I found nothing in them, but brutality and ignorance, and that they feem d
to me a kind of Trees, fomewhat moving from one place to another, rather than rati
onal Animals. Another time I confider’d them as Men altogether Enthufiaftical *
though as 1 lately faid, I could not find any fhadow of true Piety in all they did. oome-
times I thought, that this lazy, idle, and independent Life of Beggars might ave
fomething attradfive in it. Sometimes I imagin’d that the vanity, which creeps in every
where, and which is as often found under the patched Mantle oiViogenes, as under the
comely Garment of Tim, there might lurk that Spring, which might fet a going fo many
Engins i and then refledting withal upon the miferable and auflere life they led, 1 knew
not what Judgment to make of them. . , , . ,
’Tis true, that many fay, that they do not .exercife thefe flrange aufierities out in ie
hopes they entertain of becoming Rajits in their renafcence, or ot returning again in a
more happy life. But, as I have often told them to their Faces, how is i P° 1 e
any Man to refolve upon Rich a miferable life from the hope of another, that is t0 e ^
longer, and hath alfo, intheupfhot, but very little happinefs in it, thoug«i cut nou.^
return a and evtn a Jeffeingtte or a Jeffomfeingue, which are tire two n 0 ‘Pj’ 1
Rajas of the Indies > There mufl needs, faid I, lie fomething elft under it, which you
have no mind to difeover to us, or you muR be arrant Fools. * > ,
AmongR thofe I have been fpeaking of, there are fuch that are believed to e ru
Saints, illuminated and perfedt Jauguis, entirely united to God. 1 hefe are peep e t
have altogether abandon’d the World, and fcqueAer’d themfelves into fome very re^
mote, corner or Garden, like Eremites, wit hout ever coming to Town. If you carry
them any meat, they receive it i if they do not, ’tis believed that they can live wit ou
it, and fubfifl by the foie favour of God in perpetual fafling, prayer, and pro oui
meditations : For they fink themfelves fo deep' into thefe raptures, that they lp enci
hours together in being infenfible, and beholding in that time, as they give out,
himfelf, like a very bright and ineffable Light, with an unexprdlible joy ana
on, attended with an entire contempt and forfaking of th£ World: For thus muc^
of. them, that pretended he could enter into this rapture when he pleated,? and * ^
often in it, told me i and others that are about them, affirm the thing with om
ferioufnefs, that they feem to believe in earncR, as if there were no impokere ^