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Updated: May 27, 2025
In the midst of the proceedings, a very fine specimen of the race of Fukeer came in, and presenting an offering of the smallest, laid his head upon the ground before the book, and, without a word, took himself off again. He was girt round the loins with a yellowish-red cloth; his body, from head to foot, was covered with ashes.
A Fukeer should take thought for one day; on the second day there will be some fresh bestower of alms. Having heard this speech of mine, he became angry and dissatisfied, and threw all he had received from me on the ground, and said, 'Enough, father; be not so warm; take all your presents back again. Do not again assume the name of "Liberal." You cannot lift the weights of liberality.
"This appeared to me a very bad action on his part. He is not a Fukeer in whom these qualities are not. Oh, avaricious creature! you have taken from forty doors, from one gold mohur to forty. Calculate, therefore, how many you have received. And, in addition to this, your avarice has brought you again to the first door. Expend what you have received, and return and take whatever you ask for.
Something of the cheerful feelings which actuate these religious mendicants may be found in the following passage: "He may be called a wise 'Jogee, or 'Fukeer, who has dried up the reservoir of hope with the fire of austere devotion, and who has subdued his mind, and kept the organs of sense in their proper place; and this is the condition of persons in this world, that their bodies undergo dissolution, their heads shake, and their teeth fall out.
Left "Hutteian," and, winding along the valley, arrived, by a steep ascent, at Chukar, a little village boasting a fort and a small nest of Sepoys. It also owned a curiously DIRTY, and consequently SAINTLY Fukeer, whom we found sitting bolt upright, newly decorated with ashes, and with an extremely florid collection of bulls, demons, &c. painted about the den he occupied.
They are supplied gratuitously with food, and appear to be somewhat similar to the Hindoo Fukeer, devoting themselves to religion and remaining unmarried. They, however, are not so violent in their opinions, and are more conversable, to say nothing of being decidedly cleaner.
Whatever may be said against them, however, their profession of poverty and suffering is no mockery, as was that of the well-fed "monks of old," whose reasonings were something similar on religious points. The Fukeer soliloquizes: "The condition of our being born is, that our griefs are many and our pleasures few, because this world is the root of misery. What happiness, therefore, has man?
Combining dirt, idleness, and religion together, the Hindoo Fukeer, attired in the minutest rag of raiment, at times in none at all, wanders from place to place, and with long and matted hair, blood-shot haggard eyes, and scowling visage, fancies himself upon the path which leads direct to Paradise.
And, behold, this world is like a dream." The derivation of the word "Fukeer," and an illustration of the disposition of the mendicant race, is given in a Persian tale, called the "Four Dervishes." The story was originally narrated to amuse a king of Delhi, who was sick, and was afterwards DONE into Hindostanee by a Mussulman author, who styles himself, "This wicked sinner, Meer Ammun of Delhi."
The speaker, a certain prince, who aspires to the title of "generous," has built a lofty house, with forty high and spacious doors, where, at all times, from morning to evening, he gives rupees and gold mohurs to the poor and necessitous, and whoever asks for anything he satisfies him. "One day a Fukeer came to the front door and begged.
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