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THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY.
[MAY, 1881.
their parents, who play upon a musical one. stringed instrument. These small beggars both dance and sing after the fashion of dancing girls. The person standing behind them may be either a man or a woman; sometimes both attend; they both play and sing along with the dancer, A pice or a handful of grain or old clothes satisfies them.
ROPE-DANCERS. Men, women and children exhibit their skill in balancing on the rope. It is hardly possible for one who has not seen them to form any conception of the agility, distortion of limb and pliability of body of these people. They represent almost all kinds of animals, in doing which several bodies are so interlaced that the different individuals can scarcely be distinguished. They all perform feats of strength, and one man will bear on his shoulders six others standing two and two above each other.
GosÂvis, Varthema makes mention of Jogi fights. The Jogi king (1450-1510) went about every three or four years with three or four thousand of his followers carrying a little horn suspended from their necks, and which they blew when demanding alms. They also carried an iron ring, chakra, which they hurled from a string at any person they wished to hurt, and hence whenever they arrived at a city every one tried to give them more than his neighbour. When Varthema came across the Jogi the second time he had with him three thousand followers. They slew two Portagaese with the chakra, and are said to have ran upon them and cut open the veins of their throats, and with their hands they drank their blood.' Niebuhr says the Gosavis travel about armed and in troops of several thousands. Forbes, in his Memoirs, says the Gosâvis march in large bodies and levy heavy contributions. They are sometimes hired as auxiliaries, being an athletic race, brave, and hardy, seldom encumbered with drapery, and often entirely naked. In 1789' MAhadji Sindia, among other changes in the constitution of his army, enlisted large numbers of Gosavis, formed them into a distinct body, and placed them under the charge of Himat Bahadur, who was both their commander and priest.
Some of the Gosâvis carry & mendicant's staff in their hands, and at their initiation are said to inflict a small incision on the inner part of their knee, and present the blood as an offering to Siva. They call themselves Brahmans and are notorious as sturdy beggars.
The K Å np hAtes, so called from having their ears bored and huge rings inserted in them, worship Siva and carry a linga in their head-dress. They smear themselves with ashes, and dress in a red ochre-coloured frock. They pretend to tell fortunes and cure diseases. They play upon fiddles and sing both Hindustani and Marathi songs in praise of the gods. They teach animals tricks and carry about a monkey or snakes.
Then there are Urda båhus, distinguished by disgusting deformities. They extend one or both arms above their heads so long that the muscles get rigid and they remain of themselves thus elevated, and they allow their nails to grow till they completely perforate the hand. They tie round their waist a thick hemp or coir rope, or a thick iron chain, and partially cover their privities with an oblong copper covering tucked behind. Not very long ago a Gosåvi, seating himself on a post in the Mumbâdêvi tank, refused to come down unless £500 was given him to feed a number of Brahmaņs in Banâras. Only very recently a nearly naked Gosavi stood on his head with one leg upright in the air and the other doubled back at the knee. These people are said to remain in the same position for days together.
In Bombay Gosâvis and Bairagis are usually without any fixed habitation, living in dharmašalis, or on the banks of tanks attached to Hindu temples. At particular seasons there is a great influx of wandering beggars, who doubtless find it profitable to take Bombay on their way to Haridwar, Rameswar, Dwarka, Jagannath, and other places of pilgrimage." Many of these have entered the British army. They make excellent hamals or palanquinbearers, a considerable number of them being in the service of Europeans. They are degraded idolators, being regarded as outside the pale of
1 Travels, pp. 111 and 374. It is doubtful whom he means by "Ioghe" and " Gioghi." - ED.
Grant Duff's History, vol. III, pp 33, 84. * The Bom. Quar. Rev., vol. IV, p. 258.
