Page:Life in India or Madras, the Neilgherries, and Calcutta.djvu/433

Rh While some, doubtless, in the blindness of their hearts, are actually aiming thus to attain to a knowledge of God, others use a show of austerities to excite the admiration of the people, to gratify ambition, to secure a reputation for holiness, and often to use this reputation for sanctity as a cloak for the most abominable sins. Whole hosts of so-called holy men wander from place to place, as very wolves in sheeps' clothing, extorting alms from rich and poor, living in debauchery, and making their names a stench in the nostrils even of the debased Hindu.

There are a multitude of forms of self-inflicted pain, such as making long and distressing journeys to the temple of a particular god upon the hands and knees, cutting off the end of the tongue, running wires through the cheeks, walking over burning coals with the feet bare, and many others, which are not so much parts of a long-continued system of austerities, as single acts of merit; these are commonly done in fulfilment of a vow. One of the most universally-practised penances, is that of the churruk pujah, or hook-swinging. Different as are the customs of different Hindu nations, this is found almost everywhere in Hindustan.