________________
356
this purpose. According to Mr. FISHER, their meetings are held every full moon, when men and women collect at an early hour, all bringing such food as they are able, the day is spent in miscellaneous conversation, or in the discussion of matters of common interest. In the evening they eat and drink together, and the night is passed in the recitation of the stanzas attributed to BÍRBHÁN, or his preceptor, and the poems of DÁDÚ, NÁNAK, or KABÍR.
From the term they apply to the deity, SATNÁM, the true name, the Súdhs are also called Satnámis; but this appellation more especially indicates a different, although kindred, sect.
RELIGIOUS SECTS
SATNÁMÍS.
These profess to adore the true name alone, the one God, the cause and creator of all things, Nirgun, or void of sensible qualities, without beginning or end.
They borrow, however, their notions of creation from the Vedanta philosophy, or rather from the modified form in which it is adapted to vulgar apprehension. Worldly existence is illusion, or the work of MAYA, the primitive character of BHAVÁNÍ, the wife of SIVA. They recognise accordingly the whole Hindu Pantheon-and, although they profess to worship but one God, pay reverence to what they consider manifestations of his nature visible in the Avatars, particularly RÁMA and KRISHNA.
Unlike the Sádhs also, they use distinctive marks, and wear a double string of silk bound round the
