تحفة النظار في غرايب الامصار وعجايب الاسفار 13.52.1

13.52.1

وهؤلاء الطائفة تظهر منهم عجائب، منها أن أحدهم يقيم الأشهر لا يأكل ولا يشرب، وكثير منهم تحفر لهم حفر تحت الأرض وتبنى عليه، فلا يترك له إلا موضع يدخل منه الهواء، ويقيم بها الشهور، وسمعت أن بعضهم يقيم كذلك سنة! ورأيت بمدينة منجرو رجلا من المسلمين ممن يتعلم منهم قد رفعت له طبلة وأقام بأعلاها لا يأكل ولا يشرب مدة من خمسة وعشرين يوما وتركته كذلك، فلا أدري كم أقام بعدي.

One of them will spend months without eating or drinking, and many of them have holes dug for them in the earth which are then built in on top of them, leaving only a space for air to enter. They stay in these for months, and I heard tell of one of them who remained thus for a year. The people say that they make up pills, one of which they take for a given number of days or months, and during that time they require no food or drink. They can tell what is happening at a distance. The sultan holds them in esteem and admits them to his company. Some eat nothing but vegetables, and others, the majority, eat no meat; it is obvious that they have so disciplined themselves in ascetic practices that they have no need of any of the goods or vanities of this world. There are amongst them some who merely look at a man and he falls dead on the spot. The common people say that if the breast of a man killed in this way is cut open, it is found to contain no heart, and they assert that his heart has been eaten. This is commonest in the case of women, and a woman who acts thus is called a kaftar. During the famine in Delhi they brought one of these women to me, saying that she had eaten the heart of a boy. I ordered them to take her to the sultan’s lieutenant, who commanded that she should be put to the test. They filled four jars with water, tied them to her hands and feet and threw her into the river Jumna. As she did not sink she was known to be a kaftar;