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io8 Symbolism of the East and West
fypnjd or worship, which consists in giving away his own
weight in eold or silver), he is ordained to remain in Paradise
for one hundred miUion kalpas or periods of Brahma, and
that when he reassumes a human form he will become a
mighty monarch." This particular phase of "good works"
has in modern times taken a most eccentric and objectionable
form. There is a class of Hindu ascetics in the Paiijab
who called themselves Suthrashahis, from their founder, a
Brahman named Sucha, who lived in the time of Aurangzeb
(165S to 1707 A.D.). Their legend is, that hearing that he
could perform wonders, the Emperor summoned the faqir to
his presence, and told him that any favour he might ask
should be granted, on which he requested that he and his
followers might be permitted to go about begging unmolested
and freely, and that every shopkeeper should be made to
pay them not less than one paisa (about a halfpenny). His
followers still continue their profitable trade, and are noted
for their indolence, intemperance, and e.xcesses. They carry
two short sticks and walk through the bazars beating these
together until money is given them ;
nor will they pass on till
they get it, sitting dhai'nd, as it is called, for hours or even days
till their demands are satisfied. On receiving alms, they say
to the shopkeeper, " May Baba Nanak Shah (the founder of
the Sikh religion) take your boat safely over the river of life."
The Burmese, it is said, hold that a funeral should never
go to the north or the east. Their graveyards are usually
situated to the west of their villages ;
it is their custom that
the dead should be carried out of a walled town by a gate set
apart for that purpose. In Mandelay this gate is to the
south-west ; it is avoided as cursed.