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IS 207.2 Story of an Emigrant.
of the deep astronomical knowledge of the Hindoos at that
period. It is a large stone building with a flat roof, on
which are constructed astronomical instruments and figures
of brick and mortar of gigantic proportions. As examples,
I shall mention a quadrant which is eleven feet high and
nine feet wide in the direction of the meridian, and is made
for calculating the altitude of the sun, and another
instrument, thirty-six feet lono- and four and one-half feet high
’ -j cd c5
which is used in calculating the altitude and distance of a
planet or a star from the meridian.
Descending from the observatory my attention was called
to a large crowd of people on a knoll near the river bank.
Going over there I found what might be called a religious
circus attended by thousands of people, in the midst of which
was a group of Fakirs. Most of them were squatting with
crossed legs, one arm extended toward the river, and the
eyes fixed on a certain spot in the water or on the sky. One
was squatting on a plank through which long sharp nai
were driven with their points projecting upward over r n
inch. I counted eight such nails about an inch long und r
each foot. The nails had not caused bleeding wounds,
bu*-simply made deep indentures in the flesh which must hav
been very painful, at least in the beginning. One Fakir had
suspended himself on an eight-foot-tall cross, with the head
downward, by tieing one of his feet to the top of the eroFC
by a cord. Formerly they used to suspend themselves bv a
big iron hook penetrating their muscles, thus swinging their
bodies back and forth for hours; but this practice is now
prohibited by the English government. An acrobatic Fakir
was turning sommersets on a grass mat, and was considered
very holy because he could twist his limbs as if they had
been without bones. Another carried an iron cage which
was forged around his neck, and which he had carried thus
for j’ears in order to mortify his flesh. A loathsome dwarf,
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