Travels in India (Tavernier) 147.5

147.5

This garb of the Fakirs consists of the skin of a tiger, which is worn on the back, and one of a goat which covers the waist and hangs down to the knees. For cap they have the skin of a lamb or of a kid, the four feet of which hang on the forehead, neck, and ears which are pierced, and in which they insert large rings of crystal. Their legs are naked, and they have large wooden sandals on the feet, and carry a bundle of peacocks’ feathers to fan themselves with, and drive away the flies. One day as I was dining with the Augustine fathers who reside at the Court of the King of Golconda in company with M.M. Lescot and Raisin, one of these Jesuit fathers who had come from Goa entered the chamber clothed in the manner I have described. He told us that he was going to St. Thome on the business of the Viceroy of Goa; upon which I remarked that to travel throughout India it was not necessary to disguise himself, and that other religious persons, to whatever order they belonged, did not disguise themselves in that manner.