in Pagan theology, a kind of Indian monks, who even outdo the mortifications and severities of the ancient Christian anachorets. See ANACHORET.

Some of them mangle their bodies with scourges and knives: others never lie down; and others remain all their lives in one posture.

There are also another kind of fakirs, who do not practice such severities: these flock together in companies, and go from village to village, prophesying and telling fortunes. It is said that even persons of fortune, in India, become fakirs, and that there are more than two millions of them.