Many of the fakirs endeavor to make themselves look as hideous as possible.  They sometimes whitewash their faces like clowns in circuses; paint lines upon their cheeks and draw marks under their eyes to give them an inhuman appearance.  At certain seasons of the year they may clothe themselves in filthy rags for the time being as an evidence of humility.  Most of them are very thin and spare of flesh, which is due to their long pilgrimages and insufficient nourishment.  They sleep wherever they happen to be.  They lie down on the roadside or beneath a column of a temple, or under a cart, or in a stable.  Sometimes kindly disposed people give them beds, but they have no regular habits; they sleep when they are sleepy, rest when they are tired and continue their wanderings when they are refreshed.

About the time the people of the country are breakfasting in the morning the chela starts out with the brass bowl and begs from house to house until the bowl is filled with food, when he returns to wherever his master is waiting for him and they share its contents between them.  Again at noon and again at night the chela goes out on similar foraging expeditions and conducts the commissary department in that way.  The fakir himself is supposed never to beg; the gods he worships are expected to take care of him, and if they do not send him food he goes without it.  It is a popular delusion that fakirs will not accept alms from anyone for any purpose, for I have considerable personal experience to the contrary.  I have offered money to hundreds of them and have never yet had it refused.  A fakir will snatch a penny as eagerly as any beggar you ever saw, and if the coin you offer is smaller than he expects or desires he will show his disapproval in an unmistakable manner.

The larger number of fakirs are merely religious tramps, worthless, useless impostors, living upon the fears and superstitions of the people and doing more harm than good.  Others are without doubt earnest and sincere ascetics, who believe that they are promoting the welfare and happiness of their fellow men by depriving themselves of everything that is necessary to happiness, purifying their souls by privation and hardship and obtaining spiritual inspiration and light by continuous meditation and prayer.  Many of these are fanatics, some are epileptics, some are insane.  They undergo self-torture of the most horrible kinds and frequently prove their sincerity by causing themselves to be buried alive, by starving to death, or by posing themselves in unnatural attitudes with their faces or their arms raised to heaven until the sinews and muscles are benumbed or paralyzed and they fall unconscious from exhaustion.  These are tests of purity and piety.  Zealots frequently enter temples and perform such feats for the admiration of pilgrims and by-standers.  Many are clairvoyants and have the power of second sight.  They hypnotize subjects and go into trances themselves, in which condition the soul is supposed