The life of the Burhai is very surprising, very strange, and is a great puzzle to those who meet him. You would be quite afraid of a man who was lying down with ashes rubbed all over his face and body, perhaps sitting almost in a fire. His very appearance looks so strange. He may be living in a grave-yard outside the city, and he goes into the city only to obtain food for himself or his friends, who are Burhais like himself. At other times he goes off into the wilderness and lives there. He spends most of his time in meditation and also gives a great deal of time to the mastery of self. The paths which the Hindus follow are the yogas, of which there are four kinds. There is the path of abstinence, and in this the Burhai strives to develop his spiritual life by abstinence. In following this path, practices may be carried out which seem hideous, or at least very strange to those who do not understand the philosophy or the idea. Whatever it is he does, the object is to reach the spirit by killing everything that hides that spirit from his sight.