The aegis & intelligencer. [volume] (Bel Air, Md.) 1864-1923, 1879-11-14
VOL. XXIII---NO. As.
Eastern NecrOmancers.

A traveller in the East, who is evidently
giving careful account of what he saw, is
writing series ofarticles in BlackDoods Maq-
acme about Syria, and in the current number
thus describes portion of holiday levee-
Drazler OF burning charcoal was brought in
and the charcoal famed into blaze The
sheik then went through an invocation, and
suddenly with his bare feet jumped upon it and
stood there for nearly minute, the lurid flame
curling round them. The moment he got off
the serpent eaters rushed forward and filled
their mouths with the red hot charcoal, which
was again famed, the smell of burning flesh
becoming powerful and sickening as they
crunched the glowing morsels. Live Goals are
possibly the antidote to snakes after thew
have eaten them, but the general effect of
all this strange diet was beginning to have
powerful influence upon the nerves of some
OF the lady spectators, who protested that they
were unable.to witness further horrors. A
man now stepped forward, stripped to the
waist, with skin almost as fair as Euro
peans. His face had none of that expression
offanatical insanity which characterized some
OF his fraternity, but was calm and somewhat
commonplace. The sheik reappeared armed
with skewer of larger dimensions than he had
thrust through the cheeks of the first victims,
to the end ofwhich was attached heavy iron
ball. and proposed to run it through the mans
throat from the front, bringing it out at the
nape of the neck. At this there was a general
scream ofhorror and dismay. In vain did the
sheik protest that the operation would be alb
solutely painless, and show us the indurated
spots on the opposite sides of the mans neck
through which the instrument was in the habit
of passing, while the man himself smiled with
a bland expression of disappointment at being
deprived ofa pleasure to which he was ap-
parently looking forward The repugnance
OF some of our party was not to be overcome,
and the shek turned with an expression of
contempt to make preparations for what was
to follow. Pushing the same dervish's waist
coat down an inch or two, he revealed row
OF cicatrices which made semicircle extend
ing round his body. He then drew curved
knife, about eight inches long and nearly two
broad, from sheath, and proposed to plunge
it to the hilt in his stomach. 1t had short
wooden handle about four inches in length,
and there was no possibility of the blade Slip
ping back into the handle But here again
he was stopped by a cry of horror from the
ladies' This time the man earnestly joined
his protcstations to those of the sheik; his
credit seemed at stake, as there were women
on the house tops who began to chatter, and
general look of dissatisfaction on the part
of the spectators in the court yard. exam
ined both the scars and the knife. The for
mer were thin, beautifully healed incisions;
the latter as sharp as arazor and of the finest
steel. am very sorry that veracity compels
me to leave the most interesting experiment
to the readers imagination. The party had
now made up their minds to leave the place
and seemed to have no other idea than hur-
ried escape from its precincts, so we made
rather an ignominious exit, leaving the sheik
bewildered and somewhat indignant at our
pusillanimous conduct