culties of the persons supplying
the heifer and the charcoal.

These mendicants live on public favour and contributions; they wear
clothes, are deemed harmless, never ask alms, but are always willing to
accept them, and have no laws of celibacy, as is the case with some
wandering beggars in India, who are naked except the wrapper; sometimes
they settle, making fresh converts, but many wander from city to city,
always finding people disposed to administer to their necessities. They
are distinguished from other sects, by each individual carrying a small
tambourine, and wearing clothing of a deep buff colour.

There are another set of wandering mendicants, who are called Madhaar[4]
beggars, or the Duffelees,[5] by reason of the small hand-drum they carry
with them. These are the disciples of the sainted Maadhaar, whose tomb is
visited annually by little short of a million of people, men, women, and
children, at a place called Muckunpore, about twenty koss from Cawnpore.

Maadhaar was esteemed in his lifetime a most perfect Durweish, and his
admirers speak of the power he then possessed as still existing; in that
his pure spirit at stated periods hovers near his last earthly remains,
where the common people make a sort of pilgrimage to entreat his influence
in their behalf. A mayllah[6] (fair) is the consequence of this annual
pilgrimage, which continues, I think, seventeen days in succession, and
brings together, from many miles distant, the men of business, the
weak-minded, and the faithful devotees of every class in the Upper
Provinces.

From the respect paid to the memory of Maadhaar, and the expected
influence of his spirit at the shrine, the ignorant people bring their
sons to receive the saint's blessing on their tender years. The man of
business also presents himself before it, desirous to insure a share of
success at the fair, and ultimate prosperity at home. The devotee visits
the shrine from a desire to increase in true wisdom by the reflected light
of the Maadhaar Durweish's purer spirit. Women having made vows to visit
the shrine, come to fulfil it at this period, if their hopes be realized
in the birth of a son; and others to entreat his influence that their
daughters may be suitably married; in short, all who assemble at this
mayllah have some prayer to offer, or acknowledgments to make, for they
depend on the abundant power and influence of the saint's spirit to supply
their several wants or desires.

A