600 CURIOUS OFFERINGS TO IDOLS
Jagannath( Puri), a distance of more than two hundred leagues. 1 should not like to swear, however, that they really accomplished such a feat.
This tendency of Hindus to submit their bodies to severe and often cruel tortures, or to spend their means in costly offerings, is manifested whenever they find themselves in critical circumstances, and particularly in times of sickness.
There is not a single Hindu who does not in such cases make a vow to perform something more or less onerous on condition that he is delivered safe and sound from his unfortunate predicament. The rich make vows either to celebrate solemn festivals at certain temples, or to present to the pagoda some gift, such as a cow, a buffalo, pieces of cloth or other stuffs, gold or silver ornaments, & c. If the eye, nose, ear, or any other organ be afflicted, they offer to the idols an image of it in gold or silver.
Among the numerous offerings which this superstitious mania causes to flow into the temples of the Hindu gods,
there is one common enough, but which, without the perquisites which accompany it, would contribute very little to increase the wealth of the Brahmin priests. It consists
in offering one ' s nails and hair to some divinity. It is well known that men in India are in the habit of shaving the head and leaving only a single small tuft of hair to grow on the crown. Those who make the particular vow referred to refrain, for many years together, from cutting their nails and hair. Then, at a certain fixed time, they proceed in state to the temple, and there, with great ceremony, get rid of the superfluous growth of hair and nails, which they lay at the feet of the divinity whom they wish to honour.
This custom is practised only by men; it is chiefly recommended to those who believe themselves to be possessed with a devil *.
We must do justice to the Brahmins by remarking that they are never so silly as to impose on themselves vows of self-torture. They leave these pious pastimes to the stupid Sudras. And even the Sudras who practise such penances are for the most part men of low birth who do so to gain
1
This custom is also practised among Sudra women. Ed.