EXPLANATORY NOTES.
“Fakir.”—It might be added here that the word itself is derived from the Arabic “Fūkhr,” really three Arabic letters, F, K, and R.
From the F is Fâkâh, fasting.
From the K is Kanāat, contentment.
From the R is Rizzāat, devotion.
Three qualities that all Fakirs should possess; and the formidable nature of the pursuit is somewhat tersely told in the following Punjabi lines:
Fakira. Fakiri dur hai
Jitna lumba Kujoor hai
Chur jai tho piay
Prami. Rus
Girjai tochuk nā choorhai.
THUS TRANSLATED.
It is as difficult to become a true Fakir as it is to ascend a date
palm. When you reach the summit it is there only that you
drink the love juice, but if you are timid as you rise you are
sure to fall and be dashed to atoms.
In Akbar’s reign the followers of a seceder from the strict tenets of Islam, one Pir Roshan, when given to austere devotion, had, it is said, to pass through the several gradations of the external ordinances, or “Sheriat,” viz., reality, or “Hakikat,” true knowledge, or “Marifat,” proximity, or “Kurbut,” union, or “Wasalut,” the Arabic for mediation, and the indwelling in God, or “Sakūnut,” the Arabic for tranquility. These terms were peculiar to that sect.
“Gujur.”—Originally a brave people of pastoral habits, inhabiting Afghanistan. A term also applied to a low class of Hindus, from Gujerat. Now used here to designate cattle owners and sellers of milk, many of whom are also Mahomedans.
In regard to a low caste of cow-herd, called “Ahīr,” the natives have a saying:
Jummay oouth ke Seengh
Têl reth sê nikklay
Gudhâ purhay Korân
Gungâ lout Poorub sê.
Puchhim by hay
Toh Aheer say Kooch
Goon nikklay.
TRANSLATION.
If horns grew on a camel,
If oil could be extracted from sand,
If a donkey could read the Korân,
If the Ganges would flow from east to west,
Then some good might be expected from an “Ahīr,”
And another saying yet:
Aheer zuduryâ Pâsee
Teenon Satyâ Nâsee.
TRANSLATION.
An Ahīr, a shepherd, and a Pâsee (low caste);
If these three get together, mischief is sure to come.
Ahīr is a general term for a pastoral race noticed by Ptolemy. They are distinguished as three tribes, viz., the Nand bansa, Yadu bansa, and Goala bansa. (See Wilson and Elliott.)
“Two Swords in one scabbard.”—Appeals to the sword are very common with natives of Northern India, indeed many of the warlike tribes worship their weapons.
When sharpened for service by a “Sikligur,” a man who makes it his business to give a keen edge to swords, he applies two tests. One is that the edge shall be sharp enough to cut through a ball of teazed cotton, balanced on the blade, and the other that it shall, with a light touch, lift a copper coin off a table.
A Punjabi Sipahi, referring to this, was overheard to say,
Wudday Uar thay
Nam Talwar dhâ
Birreh Sipahi thây
Nam Sirdar dhâ
TRANSLATION.
The edge of the sword cuts, and the sword gets the credit; so
the soldier fights, but his officer gets the fame.
“Junthur Munthur.”—Sanscrit words, literally meaning enchanting by figures and incantations.
“Ram Ram Song.”—The appeal of Hindus is invariably to “Ram,” as the god ready to help in difficulties, and probably an incarnation of Vishnu.
The Fakir’s song would likely be:
Ram jerôka bait-kur
Sabka mujra lay
Jaisa jiski chakri
Taiko Thysa dhay.
TRANSLATED THUS:
Ram was sitting at his window, beholding before him a vast
multitude and waiting to render to each according to the
amount of work in his cause.
“Faith opposed to Magic.”—The occult sciences have no doubt found a congenial soil in India and the far East; but is a belief in them restricted to the East? or rather, are not these relics of the middle ages still found to be lurking amongst the most enlightened of Western nations?
According to “Holwell’s Mythology,” magic and its accompaniments were first taken to the Indus by the Cuseans, descendants of Cush, the son of Ham, who is credited with being the first inventor of the black art. He quotes Eusebius as his authority.
Up to this day on the Indus there is no doubt that many believe in the power of some specially devout Fakirs to ascend into the air by the aid of an invisible rope. The laws of gravity forbid, of course, our belief in the capability of any man so to control and overcome them; but the wonder is that some of these Fakirs are still able to surprise and deceive so many, and that the riddle is as yet unsolved.
In China also the power to ascend is not unknown. Conjurors from amongst the Taoist priests ascend to a height of twenty or thirty feet. Of this class are those who in Manchuria call down fire from the sky.—Dr. Denny’s “China Folk-lore.”
The wandering jugglers and conjurors on the Indus and other parts of India have a singular refrain used as an invocation before exhibiting their skill. The burden of their song seems to be:
Ya! Allimas! Ya! Kulloowar Pir! Ya! Malim da Bir!
TRANSLATED THUS:
Oh! Elymas![[4]] Oh! black hero! Oh! powerful demi-god!
Note.—Asked to explain a meteor, or shooting-star, the natives say, “You see! Shāitān ever since he has been expelled from Heaven is trying to get back, and these balls of fire, or ‘Chawathas’ which some call “Shâb” from the Arabic, are hurled at him to keep him off, and so they do, and he never succeeds.”
[4]. Acts xiii. 8.