But they were not the only people with whom he quarrelled. Both on the
road, and at his station by the tomb, I often heard him pouring out
torrents of angry eloquence, sometimes to the rather numerous women
who visited him, bringing him offerings of food. I was not near enough
to understand whether he was wroth because the offerings were not to
his taste. Also, little luxuries began to gather round him. With the
arrival of the rains came an umbrella. A smart new lamp to mark out
his encampment at night took the place of the shabby old one. He
usually returned from his frequent visits to the Mohammedan
egg-merchant enjoying one of the cheap smokes which Indians love, and
he began to put up the framework of a shanty as a shelter over himself
and the tomb. The materials for the shanty came in but slowly, so that
it was some time before the fakir could be said to have a roof over
his head. Perhaps the faithful did not altogether approve of the
diminishing austerity in the ascetic life.
His shed was completed at last, and he could no longer be said to be
quite homeless. But though his new house could not be called
luxurious, his life had lost the edifying element of the complete
poverty of his shelterless sojourn by the side of the tomb. Nor, when
his time was up, did he show any inclination to resume his wanderings,
and it seems not unlikely that he will remain in his quarters at the
tomb till _his_ turn comes to die, and then the kindly egg-merchant
will erect a whitewashed sepulchre over his remains, and he will be
reckoned among the saints.
Members of a large and peculiar religious community of Hindus are
often to be met with in the Bombay Presidency. Their habit resembles
the ordinary dress worn by Hindus, but a good deal amplified, and dyed
a slate colour. It is a rather successful adaptation of everyday dress
to religious purposes. They travel generally in large companies and
stay a long time in one spot, where, as a rule, they form a camp of
temporary huts. But sometimes they take a house for a while. Small
detachments from the main body wander round the villages, lodging in
an empty house, or taking possession of the village rest-house. They
remain till the charity of the village is exhausted, and then they
move on.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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