immortal men, and above all shunned the face of a woman more carefully than they did the devil. * These latter themselves were not absolutely naked, but wore a covering over the middle, as Augustine, in the passage above cited, De civit. Dei, 1. xiv. c. 1 7, and later tourists tell us. On the contrary, there were monks who were very scrupulous on this point. It is said of Ammon, that he never saw himself naked. The monks in Tabennse, according to the rule of Pachomius, had to sleep always in their clothes. " Comp. Hist. Lausiaca, c. 20, and Tillemont, tom. viii. p. 633. ^ The ^ocTKoi or pabulatores. Comp. Sozom. H. E. 1. vi. 33. Ephraim Syrus de- livered a special eulogy on them, cited in Tillemont, Mem. tom, viii. p. 292 sq. ■* Hist. rel. cap. (vita) xv. (Opera omnia, ed Par. iii. 843 sqq.). 168 THIRD PERIOD. A.D. 311-590. Siilpitius Severus saw an anchoret in the Thebaid, who daily shared his evening meal with a female wolf; and upon her disconthiuing her visits for some days by way of penance for a theft she had committed, he besought her to come again, and comforted her with a double portion of bread.' The same wi'iter tells of a hermit who lived lifty years secluded from all human society, in the clefts of Mount Sinai, entirely destitute of clothing, and all overgrown with thick hair, avoiding every visitor, because, as he said, intercourse with men interrupted the visits of the angels ; whence arose the report that he held intercourse with angels.'' It is no recommendation to these ascetic eccentricities that while they are without Scripture authority, they are fully equalled and even surpassed by the strange modes of self- tortnre practised by ancient and modern Hindoo devotees, for the supposed benefit of their souls and the gratification of their vanity in the j)i"esence of admiring spectators. Some bury themselves — we are told by ancient and modern travellers — in pits with only small breathing holes at the top, while others, disdaining to touch the vile earth, live in iron cages suspended from trees. Some wear heavy iron collars or fetters, or drag a heavy chain fastened by one end round their J)rivy parts, to give ostentatious proof of their chastity. Others keep their fists hard shut, until their finger nails grow through the palms of their hands. Some stand perpetually on one leg ; others keep their faces tm'ned over one shoulder, until they cannot turn them back again. Some lie on wooden beds, bristling all over with iron spikes ; others are fastened for life to the trunk of a tree by a chain. Some suspend themselves for half an hour at a time, feet uj)permost, or with a hook thrust through their naked back, over a hot fire. Alexander von Humboldt, at Astracan, where some Hindoos had settled, found a Yogi in the vestibule of the temple naked, shi'ivelled up, and overgrown with