Travels in India (Tavernier) 127.6

127.6

With this resolution he mounted on a tree which was in the square, and seated himself on a forked branch, remaining in this position without eating or drinking during several days. The report of this extravagance having reached the ears of the Dutch, with whom I then was, they and I gave money to keep men on the watch all the night close to the tree, in order to see if it was true that this man was able to remain for so long a time without eating or drinking, which he did indeed during thirty days, of which, besides the people whom we had engaged for the purpose, there were more than 100 other witnesses whom those of the tribe had sent, and who never moved by day or night from the vicinity of the tree. At length, on the thirty-first day of so surprising and extraordinary a fast, the idolaters, fearing that the Brahmin would not be able to hold out longer against hunger, and having a scruple about allowing one of their priests to die for want of giving him that which he asked for, taxed themselves all round and took him the 27 ells of cloth and the 2000 rupees. As soon as the Brahmin saw the money and cloth he descended from the tree, and after having reproached all those of the tribe who were present at this spectacle with their want of charity to the poor, he distributed to the poorest the whole sum, only reserving 5 or 6 rupees for himself.