576 RESORTING TO DECEPTION
than such material enjoyments. Thus it is that crowds
gather at these feasts from all parts; and the poor husbandman, whose whole harvest hardly affords subsistence for himself and family for six months during the year, will sell
a part of it in order to contribute to the expenses incurred at the feasts, and to enrich the clever impostorswho manage them l. But apart from the pomp and ceremony displayed for the purpose of dazzling the eyes of the people, the
Hindu priests have recourse to another kind of deception. According to them nothing can equal the miracles which are daily wrought by the god of their particular temple in
favour of those persons who put their trust in him and make him presents. Sometimes it is a barren woman who
has ceased to be so, a blind man to whom the faculty of
sight has been restored, a leper who has been cured, a cripple who has recovered the use of his legs, & c. There
is not a single Hindu who would dare to raise the shadow of a doubt concerning such miracles.
As depositaries of a religion to which they assign an
origin that is lost in the darkness of ages, the Brahmins know very well how to make use of the fables and traditions which are at the bottom of it all, such as the wonderful
adventures of the gods, giants, and ancient kings, the miraculous proceedings of the ancient Hindu sages, and the spiritual seclusion and sanctity of the ancient Hindu hermits. The austerity, however extravagant it may seem, of Brahmin penitents; the rigorous abstinence which ordinary Brahmins impose upon themselves; their frequent fasts; their daily ablutions; their excessive carefulness regarding external and internal cleanliness; their prayers; their long periods of meditation and absorption
; the impenetrable secrecy and air of mystery which accompany their sandhya, their sacrifices, and the majority of their ceremonies; the sacred books, of which they are the sole interpreters;— all these contribute to support the in-
1 '
Une religion,' says Montesquieu, chargee de beaucoup de pratiques attache plus a elle qu ' une autre qui Test moins. On tient beau- '
coup des choses dont on estcontinuellement occupe; temoin l ' obstination tenace des mahometans et des juifs et la facilite qu ' ont de changer de
religion les peuples barbares et sauvages qui, uniquement occupes de la chasse ou de la guerre, ne se chargent guere de pratiques religieuses.'
Esprit des Lois, xxv. 2.