Page:History of India Vol 9.djvu/360

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.