BYRAGEES.
(403)
BYRAGEES have been described and illustrated before at Nos. 144 and 203; and all that can be said of them here is, that they are represented in the hideous forms which they adopt in so many varieties. Two of them have smeared themselves with white wood ashes and pipe clay, till they are white from head to foot, and have a ghastly appearance when moving. The centre figure wears his own hair, which is very long and matted, tied round his head as a turban, and he has little else by way of covering by night or by day. A deer's hide, or a tiger skin, is a favourite seat, sometimes under a spreading tree, and again in the blazing sun surrounded by a fire. In penance and mortification Byragees far exceed Gosais, and never indulge in the luxuries which many of the latter adopt. As a rule, Byragees are very charitable, and if their offerings exceed their own requirements they are distributed to the poor. There are not many settled in Berar, but groups or companies frequently cross it in coming from the north; that is, from Benares, Muttra, and the source of the Ganges, under vows to visit southern shrines, and their lives are spent in these continual wanderings.
