[Illustration]
Some devotees hold up one or both arms, until the muscles become rigid,
and their limbs become shrivelled into stumps. In the above cut, you
have a representation of a man with one of these shrivelled arms. See
how long his finger-nails have grown. One has run through his hand and
back through his arm. Some stretch themselves on beds of iron spikes.
Some wear great square irons on their necks. I have seen not only a man,
but a woman, with these great square irons around their necks, each
nearly two feet in length and two feet in breadth. These they put on for
the purpose of fulfilling some vow which they have made. For instance,
if a mother has a very sick little boy, she will say, "Now, Swammie, if
you will cure my little boy, I will have a square iron put on my neck,
and wear it all my life." After this vow is made, if the little boy gets
well, the mother thinks that her Swammie has cured him, and to fulfil
her engagement she will have one of these irons put on her neck.
[Illustration:]
[Illustration:]
Other devotees throw themselves from the tops of precipices, and are
dashed to pieces; some bury themselves alive in holes, which their own
relatives have dug; some bind themselves with ropes or chains to trees,
until they die; some keep gazing so long and so constantly at the
heavens, that the muscles of their neck become contracted, and no
aliment but liquids can pass into the stomach.
Pages:
91
92
93
94
95
96
97
98
99
100
101
102
103
104
105
106
107
108
109
110
111
112
113
114
115