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THE TRAVELS OF
of fire, which they ſhift from hand to hand: many walk, with bare feet on ſharp iron ſpikes fixed in a kind of ſandal: ſeveral of their order turn their faces over one ſhoulder, and keep them in that ſituation till they fix for ever, their heads looking backward: another feet clench their fiſts very hard, till the nails of the fingers growinto the palms, and appear through the back of their hands, ind numbers, who never ſpeak, turn their eyes to the point of the noſe, loſing the power of looking in any other direction. Theſe laſt pretend to ſee what they call the ſacred fire. Strange as this auſterity may ſeem, if accompanied with purity of intention, it muſt be conſidered by the unprejudiced, as leſs offenſive to the
Deity,
