Historical Geography. 1900. India. Hardy ascetic at Benares piously indifferent to a couch of nails.

Historical Geography. 1900. India. Many religious codes, and especially those of India, have advocated or enjoined the mortifying of the flesh and its resulting subjection to the spirit. All over this land and many faiths one may see yogis, fakirs, and all varieties of the mendicant religious, practising with every vigour what their leaders have preached. Marriage, speech, and cleanliness are among the popular renunciations, and in this photograph, we have another example of self-suppression. Whatever may be said of other methods it is abundantly evident that this one has its points.