Hindu Manners, Customs and Ceremonies - DUBOIS, Abbé Hindu Manners, Customs and Ceremonies, Dubois | Page 507

THE FALSE SANNYASI
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take in one hand a bamboo staff with seven knots, and in
the other the gourd in which a penitent always carries
water, while under your arm you will carry the antelope's
skin on which persons of that class must always sit.
Thus
equipped, you must go without delay to the mountain just
outside the town and enter the cave which is to be found
on its slope. You must lay your antelope's skin on the
floor of the cave, and then squat down on it like a sannyasi,
your eyes firmly fixed on the ground, your nostrils tightly
shut with one hand, and the other hand resting on the top
Be very careful to play your part properly,
of your head.
and take good care not to betray me. It is possible that
the king, accompanied by his whole court and by a great
crowd of other people, will come to visit you in the cavern
but whoever presents himself, even though it be I or the
king himself, remain perfectly motionless in the posture
which I have described to you, looking at nobody, speaking
And whatever happens, even though they
to nobody.
should tear out the hairs one by one from your body, show
not the smallest sign of pain, and do not budge an inch.
These, Kuruba, are my commands.
If by any chance you
deviate in the least degree from the instructions which
I have given you, you will answer for it with your life
but if on the contrary you follow them punctiliously, you
may count upon a magnificent reward.'
The poor shepherd, accustomed all his life simply to
look after his sheep, was very diffident as to his ability to
change his condition for that of a sannyasi but the tone
of his master was so imperative that he judged it prudent
to waive all objections and to obey him blindly.
Furnish-
ing himself with all the necessary paraphernalia of his new
profession, and thinking over all that he had been ordered
to do, he departed for the cave.
Meanwhile Appaji returned
to the palace, where he found the king surrounded by his
courtiers.
Approaching the monarch with a serious air,
Appaji addressed him in the following terms
Great
;
;
:
pardon
me
—
'
at this moment, when surrounded by
your wise councillors you are considering the best means
of making your people happy
pardon me, I say, if I
interrupt you in order to announce to you that the day
king,
if
—
has come
when
the gods, pleased with your eminent virtues,