Bismarck tribune., 1879-09-05

rod at all. Il
So far from lightning being danger
most difficult to avoid, it has very simple
laws. and may be entirely guarded
against By proper conductors. Witness
the British navy, which met 500 disaster
q year by lightning till ships were provi
dad with conductors, by which the fatal
1 tiles were reduced to fifty, ameng ships
in the tnopics, .expeseds to violent. storms
'fapd ese may Be fairly charged to care.
# Z q .sin il 1ear e the conduc tors:
II racles Of q lLehal lnedan kkeakh
4 4 Anew fork fk ssa corfes ,ii onSd1ent whites
from Damascus, giving the following ac.
count Of miracles = performed bya No;
hammedan sheikh OF priest: Taking I
b .ndful Of skewers sin. lar to those used 10!
cooking purposes, each about . foot long
he called the widest half-stripped disci-
pie to him, and opening his mouth, NUT
terlng the while with great apparent in
tenity of concent ntration prayer or invo-
cation, he with sudden jerk forced the
point clean through the cheek so that it
could be seen projecting on the other side.
He repeated the process with the other
cheek, the man showing no sign of pain
and not a drop of blood flowing from the
wound. He then went to his son, who
calmly gazed at HIM with his large swim,
ming eyes, opened his mouth and received
similar stab through the cheek without
the quive. of an eyelid. I vas watching
him closely and could not observe the
slightest contraction. Thepoin
was clearly projecting through the skin,
and deception was impossible, as the :;
was every opportunity afforded for the
closest inspection. Leaving the two vic
Tins with their mouths thus trussed,
as it we're, the shiekh took a square box,
which, when opened, was found to con-
tain several live scorpions of unusual
size. Taking up one OF these, as large
as an ordinary land crab, he handed it,
all wnggling, aarting It's tail in it's efforts
to sting to man who came for ard, and
calmly but rapidly dropped it into his
mouth and crunched it with great appar-
ent relish, eating it completely up. Then
we saw much larger box, containing
serpcnts of various sizes. These he turn
ed out upon the floor, dominating them
after the manner of serpent charmers,
and allowing them to twine and curl
round him. In this, of course, t ere was
nothing marvellous, nor indeed in wtat
Immediately followed, though it was
sickening to behold. ORA. !. ing a live
snake about two feet long out Of the box,
he held 1t up by the tail, when suddenly
tall man afflicted apparently with St.
Eitus' dance, with hair disheveled, rush
ed forward with a loud cry, and with
foaming lips seized the snake with both
hands, tore it violently asunder, and
plunged its bloody and palpitatlng end
into his mouth. This seemed the signal
for general scramble. IN moment
three or four men were tearing the Writh-
ing fragments with their teeth, and with
greediness devoured them in large mouth
fuls until not particle ofsnake remained.
They then drew back with seeming re-
luctance, wiping their bloody lips with
their hands.
But the excitement seemed to, have
produced sort Of fit in the man who had
first seized the snake, from which the
she1kh restored him by clasping his head
Nth both hands and pressing it violently,
while he again concentrated himself on
lamentations, the veins starting out on his
forehead with the intensity of his efforts.
In few moments the dervish had become
comparatively calm though for the rest
of the time observed that he continued
to twitch and jerk convulsively, while his
eyes rolled wildly.
Meantime the man and boy who had
been pierced watched the proceedings
with the utmost unconcern. As it was
difficult to believe that to remain with
ones cheeks skewered did not at all
events produce feeling of discomfort,
and as they must have been standing for
atlcast quarter of an hour in the same
attitude, l told the sheikh to pull out the
skewers. This he did, in each case pre-
ceding the sharp pull with which he ex-
tracted them by an earnest invocation.
When they we're drawn out the points
we're bloodless, while, excepting that
there was an apparent indunation of the
cheek at the spots through which the
skewers had passed, there was no sign of
what had happened.
A brazier full of live charcoal was now
brought in, and famed into flame. When
it was glowing with blue and lurld
light, the shelkh, calling suddenly on
Allah several times, jumped literally on
the blazing mass with his bare feet, and
stood there for nearly minute. Then
getting down, the charcoal was again
famed into flame, and the men who had
eaten the scorpions and serpents, and who
had been skewered through the cheeks
rushed forward, plunged their hands into
tie burning mass, and tossed the glow
ing enbers into their mouths, crunching
them up with the greatest concern. Mean
time the smell of burned flesh became
sinmistakable, which somewhat initiates
"a +I,o 4hoor,, 41,. II, dir Aoof ic inn