1. History. — Wo find no religious devotees of this kind among the IMohammedans earlier than the 13th century after Christ, though the origin of Hindoo fakir- ism is by some writers referred back to Sakyamuni. See Buddhism. But a satisfactory explanation of the ori- gin of fakirism may be found in that perverted human tendency which in all ages has sought to earn the favor of God and the praise of men through abstraction of the soul and chastenings of the flesh, and has been too prone to accord to such acts undue homage and sanc- tity. Nowhere has this tendency been more marked than among the imaginative and superstitious peoples of the East. The account which Strabo, on the au- thority of Megasthenes, Aristobulus, and others, has given us of the G3'mnosophists, especialh* that class called by him Garmmes, and by others Sarmani or Samaniei, shows that ascetics, very similar in modes of life, doctrines, and i)ractices to the Falcirs of mod- ern India, were found there at the time of Alexander's conquests. This conclusion is strengthened by the de- scriptions of Quintus Curtius, Arrian, Plutarch, Plinj', Clemens Alexandrinus, and other ancient authors, when treating of the philosophers of India. It seems not a merely speculative view which assumes that the naked j)hilosophers, so celebrated in ancient times, were, in an ethical sense at least, the progenitors of the modern Fakirs (see Heeren, Asiatic Nations, ii, 242, note).
Among the mendicant devotees who abounded in India at the date of the Mohammedan conquests wo find the Fakirs mentioned as prominent in the venera- tion of the people, and exercising an almost unlimited influence over them ; and frequent mention is made of these fanatics and their strange practices by the travellers who have described India since the period named. D'Herbelot estimated that there was in In- dia 800,000 Mohammedan and 1,200,000 idolatrous Fa- kirs, while the number of both sorts is now estimated at over 1,000,000. Fakirism, with other forms of su- perstitious fanaticism, seems to be rapidly losing ground under the influences and agencies which, since the prevalence of Britisli rule, have been diffusing the light of the purer doctrines of the Gospel through In- dia.
2. Sects or Fraternities. — They are divided into sects or orders, each differing from the others more or less in dress, habits, etc. Owing perhaps to the lack of organization and the number of their fraternities, the accounts of travellers and other authorities in this re*
FAKIR
468
FALASHAS
epect seem conflicting and fragmentary. "Without at- tempting any precise daswitication, we ma}' group them under two heads : 1. Those living in communities, either in convents, as AVestcrn monlis, or wandering about in troops, sometimes amounting to thousands. 2. Those living singly, as hermits or as vagabond men- dicants, passing from place to place, practising the arts and tricks of their order, and receiving from the credidous superstition of the people the entertainment and alms provided at public expense in the villages for persons of their class.
" The Fakirs of India," says Zimmermann {Vorider Einsamkeit, ii, 107), "have a sect which is called the Illuminated, or those who are united with God. The Illuminated have overcome the world, live in some se- cluded garden, like hermits, so deeply sunk in contem- plation that they look for whole hours at one spot, in- sensible to all outward objects. But then, as they state, with indescribable delight thej' perceive God as a pure white light. For some days before they live on nothing but bread and water, sink into deep silence, look upward for some time with fixed gaze, turn their eyes in deep concentration of the soul to the point of the nose, and now the white light appears" (Ennemo- ser, i, 205-6).
The Fakirs, or Yogees, of the Senessee tribe travel over Hindostan, living on the charity of the other Hindoos, generalh' entireh' naked, and " most of them robust, handsome men. They admit proselj'tes from the other tribes, especially youths of bright parts, and take great pains to instruct them in their mysteries." Collected in large bodies, and armed, they make pil- grimages to sacred places, laying the country under contribution. Led on by an old woman named Bos- timia, who pretended to possess the gift of enchant- ment, one of their hosts, 20,000 strong, defeated an army of Aurungzebe, and for a time, through the in- fluence of superstitious fears, paralyzing his powers of resistance, spread terror and dismaj' through his court and capital. Niebuhr, the traveller, speaks of the Bargais and the Gusseins, two orders of Fakirs, as travelling armed, and in troops of thousands. The Iconographic Enci/clojm'dia (iv, 232) names three class- es of Hindoo ascetics, viz. SanasMs or Saniassi, Vish- navins, and Penitents.
3. Peculiar Doctrines and Austerities. — The-profession of poverty constitutes a fundamental principle of fa- kirism, as the name itself indicates. One author sa^'S "the ciualitj'' which God most loves in his creatures is povertj';" and tradition reports Blohammed as saj'- ing to his servant Belal, " Sec to it that you appear before God poor and not rich, for the poor have the chief places in his mansion." Another fundamental principle is the virtue of self-torture, penances, and se- clusion of spirit as means for the attainment of sanc- tity. The Fakir, says Hassan al Basri, is like a dog in ten things : he is always hungry ; has no fixed abode; watches during the night ; leaves no heritage when he dies ; does not abandon his master, though ill treated ; chooses the lowest place ; yields his place to whomsoever wishes it ; returns to him who has beat- en him, when a crust of liread is offered ; keeps quiet while others eat, and follows his master without think- ing of returning to the place lie has left. The variety and character of their penances and mortilications of the flesh display no little ingenuity of conception, and demand great powers of endurance in performance. Some go naked, or Avear only filthy rags, suffering the heat of the sun, the storms of rain, and the cold of the night in tlie open air, sleeping on cow-dung or oth- er ordure, "didighting in nastiness and a holy obscen- ity with a great show of sanctity," with hair uncut, and body and face besmeared witli ashes, looking more like devils than men. One has kept his arms in one position until thej' shrivelled up; another has kept his hands clasped together until the nails grew through the flesh. Some have buried themselves up to their