Page:Thomas Patrick Hughes - Notes on Muhammadanism - 2ed. (1877).djvu/260

 Rh arms folded, bowing and turning slowly several times. They then cast off their mantles and appear in long bell-shaped petticoats and jackets, and then begin to spin, revolving, dancing, and turning with extraordinary velocity.

The founder of this religious order was a native of Balkh, in Central Asia. It is said the spiritual powers of this extraordinary man were developed at the early age of six years; for once on a Friday Jalád-ud-dín was at Balkh on the roof of a house with some children of his own age, when one of the boys asked him if it were possible for him to jump from one house to the other. He replied, "If you have faith, jump up towards heaven." He then sprang upwards, and was immediately lost to sight. The youths all cried out as he disappeared, but he soon returned from the celestial regions, greatly altered in complexion and changed in figure; for he had obtained a sight of the abodes of bliss!

It is impossible to become acquainted with all the rules and ceremonies of the numerous orders of Faqírs; for, like those of the Free-