They Also Allow Their Nails To Grow, Till They Become Pointed And
Sharp Like Swords.
Each has a string round his neck, to which hangs an
earthen dish, and when hungry, they go to any house, whence the inhabitants
cheerfully supply them with boiled rice.
They have many laws and religious
precepts, by which they imagine that they please God. Part of their
devotion consists in building kans, or inns, on the highways, for the
accommodation of travellers; where also certain pedlars, or small dealers,
are established, from whom the passengers may purchase what they stand in
need of. There are also public women, who expose themselves to travellers.
Some of these are called women of the idol, the origin of which
institution is this: When a woman has laid herself under a vow, that she
may have children, if she happens to produce a handsome daughter, she
carries her child to the bod[12], so the idol is called. When this girl
has attained the proper age, she takes an apartment in the temple, and
waits the arrival of strangers, to whom she prostitutes herself for a
certain hire, and delivers her gains to the priest for the support of the
temple. All these things they reckon among their meritorious deeds. Praised
be God who hath freed us from the sins which defile the people involved in
unbelief!
Not very far from Almansur there is a famous idol called Multan, to which
the Indians resort in pilgrimage, from the remotest parts.
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