Page:History of India Vol 9.djvu/77

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HINDU ASCETICS AND PHYSICIANS
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concerning the causes of things, and through them worship and supplicate the Divinity.

A HINDU ASCETIC IN A TRANCE.

Second in honour to the Hylobioi are the physicians, for they apply philosophy to the study of the nature of man. They are of frugal habits, but do not live in the fields, and they subsist upon rice and meal, which every one gives when asked; and every one receives them hospitably. By means of charms they are able to cause persons to have numerous offspring and to have either male or female children. They cure diseases by diet, rather than by medicinal remedies. Among the latter, the most in repute are unguents and cataplasms. All others, they suppose, are, to a large extent, improper to use.

Both this and the other class of persons practise self-denial, as well in supporting active toil as in enduring suffering, so that they will continue a whole day in the same posture without moving.

There are enchanters and diviners, versed in the rites and customs relating to the dead, and they go about villages and towns begging. There are others, more civilized and better informed, who inculcate the

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