F'AKIR, F'AQUIR, noun A monk in India. The fakirs subject themselves to severe austerities and mortifications. Some of them condemn themselves to a standing posture all their lives, supported only by a stick or rope under their arm-pits. Some mangle their bodies with scourges or knives. Others wander about in companies, telling fortunes, and these are said to be arrant villains.
Source: Webster's 1828 American Dictionary ↗ · public-domain · returned verbatim, no AI