Page:The People of India — a series of photographic illustrations, with descriptive letterpress, of the races and tribes of Hindustan Vol 7.djvu/274

 BANWA FAKEER. (402)

HIS sect, or class of Mussulman Fakeers, has adopted the above title to express that they have utterly renounced the world. They are very bigoted, and seldom ask alms from Hindoos, whom they hold in contempt. Men of good position sometimes adopt the rules of the order, which are very severe. The new disciple must give up all he has of every description, and must take an oath of celibacy; he is then bathed, and has incense burnt around him, after which he is invested with his conical cap, which is called taj, or crown, and a garment of grave clothes, which consists of a piece of coarse cotton cloth with a slit torn in the centre lengthways wide enough to admit his head, this hangs round his neck, covering him before and behind, and is called kafni. He lets his hair grow, but the chin and upper lip are sometimes sbaved, and he wears agate or onyx beads about his neck, carrying a small rosary of wooden beads in his hand or twisted round his wrist. These Fakeers are generally found attached to cemeteries, or to single tombs of local saints, of which they become caretakers. They ask nothing from any one, but sometimes sit down before a house, and will not move till they are provided with what they want, or relieved in some respect. The sect is not very numerous, owing perhaps to the severe conditions attached to the performance of its rules.