Page:The People of India — a series of photographic illustrations, with descriptive letterpress, of the races and tribes of Hindustan Vol 5.djvu/226

BAIRAGEE. are kept as bright as gold, and a stout bamboo staff supports him. Altogether he is a picturesque figure, welcome for his tales of travel and adventure to many a quiet Hindoo household, or as a reciter of the loves and legends of Krishna, which he has learned. Perhaps too, he may bestow a few drops- of the sacred water on a sick or ailing person or child, and tell his auditors of conditions to be observed. So onwards for the thousand miles of his pilgrimage, and having achieved it, perhaps travels on to the south; to Pundeipoor in the Deccan, or to Mysore, or even to Juggunath, or the last southern point of India, Rameshwvur; and thus his life passes, till, wearied out, he rests among some monkish community, or dies of cholera, fever, or fatigue, while on one of his pilgrimages.

Bairagees have existed, as we know, from the time of Alexander the Great, and are, no doubt, much more ancient. When they marry, as some of the lay Bairagees do, it is only among their Own people, for being of all castes, they could claim alliance with none in particular. Their spiritual teachers are termed Nagas, probably descendants of the old snake worshippers, and mahunts, or heads ot monasteries, who teach the mysterious signs and invocations of the sect, and invest the votaries with their tawny coloured dress, and necklace of wooden beads. There are four chief sects of Bairagees distinguished by separate marks on their foreheads: Rama-nundee, Neema-nundee, Mahdo Acharee, and Bishno. The figure in the Photograph, by his forehead mark, is a Rama-nundee, which is the most numerous. All Bairagees are strict vegetarians, they accept no service, and, as has been already remarked, live on charity. Where there are monasteries or lay families, they are sometimes farmers, graziers, and corn merchants, but no Bairagee monastery is without its begging friars, who carry a wallet and a bell.