Eastern times. [volume] (Bath, Me.) 1846-1857, 1851-09-04
S E LECT TALE
A Fuqueer's Curse.

Among the many strange objects which an
Englishman meets with in India, there are
few which tend so much to upset his equan-
unity as visit from a wandering fuqueer.
The advent Of one of these gentry in an
English settlement is regarded with much the
same sort of feeling as a vagrant cockroach,
when he makes his appearance unanuounced,
in modern drawinq-room. If we could i'm
agine the aforesaid cockroach brandishing his
horns in the face of the Mortified Inmates, ex-
ulting in the disgust which his presence ere
ates, and intimating, with conceited swagger,
that, in virtue of his ugliness, he considered
himself entitled to some cake and wine, per-
haps the analogy would be more complete.
The fuqueer is the mendicant friar of India.
He owns no superior; wears no clothing per-
forms no work; despises every body and ev
cry thing; sometimes pretends to perpetual
fasting and lives on the fat of the land.
There is this much. however, TO be said for
him, that when he does mortify himself for the
good of the community, he does it to some
purpose A ienten fast, or a penance of
parched peas in his shoes, would be mere
bagatele to him. We have seen fuqueer
who was never known TO eat at all. He
carried small black stone about with him,
which had been presented to his mother by a
holy man. He pretended that by sucking this
stone, and without the aid of any sort of nutri-
ment he had arrived al the mature age of for
ty; yet he had nest of supplementary chins,
and protuberant paunch, which certainly did
great credit to the fattening powers of the
black stone. Oddly enough, his business was
to collect eatables and drinkables but, like
begging birthstone, they were mo for hissel,
but for neebour.' When | saw him he was
soliciting offerings of rice, milk, fish, and
ghee, for the benefit of his patron Devi.-
These offerings were nightly laid upon the al
tar before the Devi, who was supposed TO abb
sorb them during the night, considerably leav
ing the fragments to be distributed among the
poor of the parish. His godship was very
discriminating in the goodness and freshness
of these offerings for he rejected such as
were stale, TO be returned next morning with
his maledictions, to the fraudulent donors.
Sometimes a fuqueer will take it into his
head that the community will be benefited by
his trundling himself along, like cart-wheel,
for couple of hundred miles or so. He ties
his wrists TO his ankles, gets tire, composed
of chopped straw, mud, and cow-dung, laid
along the ridge of his backbone; bamboo
staff passed through the angle formed by his
knees and his elbows, by way of an axle, and
off he goes; brazen cup, with a bag, and
hubble-bubble, hang like tassels at the two ex-
tremities of the axle Thus accoutred, he Of
ten starts on journey which will occupy him
for several years, like Millions fend,
I" Der bog. or steep, through straight, rough,
dense, rare,
With hands, feet, or wings. pursues his way
On arriving in the vicinity of a village, thu
population turn out to meet and escort him
with due honors to the public well or tank /;
the men beating drums, and the women sing
ing through their noses. Here his holiness
unbends, washes off the dust and dirt acquired
by perambulating several piles of dusty road /;
and after pariaking of slight refreshment,
enters into conversation with the assembled vii
layers Just as if he were an ordinary mortal |;
making very particular inquiries concerning
the state of their larders, and slight investiga-
tions as TO their morals. OF course every one
is anxious to have the honor of entertaining a
man so holy as to roll to their presence doub-
led up into hoop and the disputes get warm
as TO who is to have the preference. Where
upon the fuqueer makes a speech, in which
he returns thanks for the attentions shown him,
and intimates that he intends taking up his
quarters with the man who is most capable of
tesiifying his appreciation of the honor After
some higgling, he knocks himself down de-
cided bargain, to be the guest of the highest
bidder, in whose house he remains, giving
good advice to the community, and diffusing
an odor of sanctity throughout the whole vii
lage. When the supplies begin TO fail, he
ties his hands to his heels again, gets fresh
tire put on, and is escorted out of the village
with the same formalities as accompanied his
- Es
entrance.
Like other vermin of his class, he is most
apt to attach himself to the weaker vessels OF
humanity, with whom he is generally prodi-
gious favorite. He is not, certainly, indebted
to his personal advantages for this favor, for a
more hideously ugly race Of men is seldom
met with. As if nature had not made him
sufficiently repGlsive, he heightens his hide
business by encircling his eyes with bands Of
white paint; daubing his cheeks rich mus.
tard yellow white streak runs along the
ridge of his nose, and another forms circle
around his mouth his ribs are indicated b,
corresponding bars of white paint, which Civ,
highly venerable cross-bones effect to hi
breast When add, that he wears noclothes
and that the use Of soap is no part of his reli
gion, some idea may be gained of the effec
the first view Of him occasions in the mind o
a European. $50 s4... Is ~
On the afternoon of very sultry day il
June, l had got a table out on the verandah o
my bungalow, and was amusing myself witt
q galvanic apparatus, giving such of my ser
wants as had the courage, a taste Of what thel
called H7uldtee boinjee, English lightning,
when long, gaunt figure, with his hair hang
Ing in disordered masses over his face, was OBJ
served TO cross the lawh. On arriving within