The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1906-06-10

Agra and Ouda Within the walls q
the fort there is another Of the Asoka
pillars. q very well preserved one. for
ty-nine feet high and bearing nUmer-
Gus inscriptions, among which are the
famous edicts Of Asoka issued in 240 3.
c. against the taking of life Within
the fort in a subteTranean room is an
other object Of interest, the Akhshat
Bar or undecaying banyan tree. As
this tree is described by a Chinese Pill
grim OF the seventh century, il is either
OF remarkable antiquity or has been
renewed from time to time.
The religious Importance OF Alfalfa
bad is largely due to a fair which is
held there every year and which on
every twelfth year becomes a national
event II is called the MsIa and last
January brought 10 the city a crowd
! estimated at from 1900 600 to 5000, 600.
This every twelfth year fair brings to-
gether not only the devout Hindus. who
come as a matter Of religious duty and
innumerahle traders who at such times
find a market for their wares. but II
draws large numbers of faklrs (pro-
nounced fahkeeTs( with the accent upon
the last syIlable) or holy men. They
wear boards and long hair amt no cloth
/ ing except the breech clout. They put
ashes and even manure upon their
/ heads. and their hair and WhiskeFs
are matted and discOlOTed. These men
are supposed to have raised them
/ selves TO a high spiritual state by as
/ ceticism and punishment. They
+ undergo all sorts of hardships. such
as hanging over fire, holding up the
arm until IL Withers and sitting upon a
I bed OF spikes. We saw many fakirs
+ at Benares and AIlahabad and some
/ elsewhere (for they are scattered over
the whole country, and at the latter
place one accommodated Us by taking
/ his seat upon the spikes.
4 At the recent MeIa 500 Of these ia
kris marched i'm a procession naked.
Z even the bTeeCh cloth having been
+ abandoned FOR the occasion, and so
great was the reverence for them that
/ their followers struggled 10 obtain
/ the sand made sacred by their tread. a
+ number OF people meeting their death
/ in the crowd. These fakiFs are SUD
/ posed to have reached a state OF sin
/ leSsness- but one of them seized
child along the line of march and
dashed out its brains in the presence
Of its mother, claiming to be advised
that the gods desired a human saCri-
fee He was arrested by the British
. officials and is now awaiting trial on
the charge of murder The papers re-
. Gently reported another instance in
which a fakiT was the cause Of a muir
I who had lost several children and va
. anxious to protect her prospective
child from a like fate The fakir told
her that she could insure her child g
life if she would herself battle IN hu-
man blood, and she and her husband
eHticed a T-yeaT-Oid boy into their
home and killed him to secure the
blood necessary for the bath. The IA
kris are not only a danger TO the com
munity in some cases and a source Of
decentralization at all times, but they
are a heavy drain upon the producing
( wealth of the country. Adding nothing
to the material, intellectual or moral
development of the country, they live
upon the fears and credulity Of the
people.
The Hindu religion claims some
thing more than 100000, 600 OF human
. beings within its membership. II
teacher the trausmigration of the soul
or TeincaTnatiOn as il is generally
called The Hindu mind takes kindly
.N,,s<e Continued on Page Nine.