Travels in the Mogul Empire (Bernier) 19.4.4

19.4.4

Danechmend-kan seemed well satisfied with the account I brought of Send-brary, and wished me to undertake another journey, that I might bear my testimony to what he called a real miracle [miracle assuré], such a miracle as would induce me to renounce my religion and become a Musulman. 'Hasten to Baramoulay,' said he; 'the distance is not greater than to Send-brary: there you will see a Mosque which contains the tomb of a celebrated Pire, or Holy Derwiche, who though dead yet miraculously cures the sick and infirm. Perhaps you may deny the reality either of the disease or of the cure; but another miracle is wrought by the power of this holy man, which no person can see without acknowledging. There is a large round stone that the strongest man can scarcely raise from the ground, but which eleven men, after a prayer made to the saint, lift up with the tips of their eleven fingers with the same ease as they would move a piece of straw.' I was not sorry for another little excursion, and set out with both my former companions, the trooper and the native of the country. I found Baramoulay a rather pleasant place; the Mosque is a tolerable building and the Saint's tomb is richly adorned. It was surrounded with a great number of people, engaged in acts of devotion, who said they were ill. Adjoining the Mosque is a kitchen, wherein I observed large boilers filled with meat and rice, which I conceived at once to be the magnet that draws the sick, and the miracle that cures them.