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food weighing ten dirhams, or a fraction of an ounce, a day^[1] or in some cases on only one such unit.^[2] Some could live without any kind of food or drink for two or three days in succession.^[3] Such devotees practised many kinds of austerities;^[4] and all of these mortifications of the flesh were undergone in religious imitation of their Hindu brethren. The chief among such austerities were those of supporting themselves on the extremities of their fingers from midnight until dawn,^[5] and of standing on the head with the feet raised in the air from nightfall unto sunrise.^[6] By rigorous discipline some such religious enthusiasts, we are told, attained the power of suppressing their breath for three hours,^[7] or even for twelve.^[8] They would thus swoon away into a state of trance,^[9] in which respiration and breathing were totally suspended, and by this utter self-abnegation the adepts reached the borders of utter selflessness. Mobad Hushiyyar, once plunged into deep water and remained underneath for full six hours before he raised his head above the surface.^[10] These devotees, like the Indian Yogis, as shown below, are credited with the power of quitting the bodily frame at pleasure, traversing the spiritual regions, and returning to the body whenever they liked.^[11] They laid claim to read the thoughts of others.^[12] They are further fantastically credited with the superhuman power of performing miracles; such as causing the sun to hide his disk and appear at night, or the stars to appear during the day, walking on the surface of water, showing themselves in the form of lightning in the heavens, metamorphosing animals, rendering themselves invisible to man, assuming various forms,^[13] appearing at one and the same time at distant places, bringing the dead to life, or causing the death of the living, producing food and wine from nothing,^[14] causing the rains to fall or to cease, producing giants to frighten others, converting broken pottery into gold,^[15] disporting in the midst of a burning fire, or swallowing it,^[16] and such like.