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352
RELIGIOUS SECTS
of which, on a table covered with gold cloth, lies the volume of the founder.
As a test of the disciple's consent to the real identity of the essence of the Hindu and Mohammedan creeds, the ceremony of initiation consists of eating in the society of inembers of both communions: with this exception, and the admission of the general principle, it does not appear that the two classes confound their civil or even religious distinctions: they continue to observe the practices and ritual of their forefathers, whether Musalman or Hindu, and the union, beyond that of community of eating, is no more than any rational individual of either sect is fully prepared for, or the admission, that the God of both, and of all religions, is one and the same.
SADHS. A full account of this sect of Hindu Unitarians, by the Reverend Mr. Fisher, was published in the Missionary Intelligencer some years ago, and some further notice of them is inserted in the Transactions of the Royal Asiatic Society', by Mr. Trant. They are distinguished from other Hindus by professing the adoration of one Creator, and by personal and moral observances which entitle them, in their own estimation, to the appellation of Sádhs, Sádhus, Pure or Puritans.
The Sádhs are found chiefly in the upper part of the Doub, from Farúkhábúd to beyond Dehli. In the
* [1, 251 ff.]
