ng life to the service of God, and in doing good to his fellow-men,
tells me, that being curious to witness the effect of an assembly of
Saalik Soofies, he went with a party of friends, all equally disposed with
himself to be amused by the eccentricities of the Soofies, whose practice
they ridiculed as at least absurd,--to speak in no harsher terms of their
pretended supernatural gifts.

'This assembly consisted of more than a hundred persons, who by agreement
met at a large hall in the city of Lucknow, for the purpose of
"remembering the period of absence", as they term the death of a highly
revered Soofie of their particular class. The room being large, and free
admittance allowed to all persons choosing to attend the assembly, Meer
Eloy Bauxh and his party entered, and seated themselves in a convenient
place for the more strict scrutiny of the passing-scene.

'The service for the occasion began with a solemn strain by the musical
performers, when one of the inspired Soofies commenced singing in a voice
of remarkable melody. The subject was a hymn of praise to the great
Creator, most impressively composed in the Persian language. Whilst the
Soofie was singing, one of the elders in particular,--though all seemed
sensibly affected by the strain,--rose from his seat, in what the Soofies
themselves call, "the condition changed," which signifies, by what I could
learn, a religious ecstasy. This person joined in the same melody which
the other Soofie had begun, and at the same time accompanied the music by
capering and sobbing in the wildest manner imaginable. His example had the
effect of exciting all the Soofies on whom his eyes were cast to rise also
and join him in the hymn and dance.

'The singularity of this scene seemed, to Meer Eloy Bauxh and his party,
so ludicrous that they could not refrain from laughing in an audible
manner, which attracted the attention of the principal Soofie engaged in
the dance, who cast his eyes upon the merry party, not, however,
apparently in anger. Strange as he confesses it to be,--and even now it
seems more like a dream than a reality,--at the moment he met the eye of
the Soofie, there was an instant glow of pure happiness on his heart, a
sensation of fervent love to God, which he had never before felt, in his
most devout moments of prayer and praise; his companions were similarly
affected, their eyes filled with tears, their very souls seemed elevated
from earth to heaven in the rapt