The Red Cloud chief., 1880-10-21
BURIED FOR FORTY DAYS.

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BURIED FOR FORTY DAYS.
A wen-Attested Account Of nm IndIan
FakIr who was sealed Up, Buried, and
Resuscitased After Forty Dnys-The
Process or Reviving the vital spark.
WI are not told whether the Seven
Sleepers who retired to a cave in Ephe-
sus during the reign of the Christian
killing Emperor Dccius. and only woke
up one hundred and fifty-five years aft
erward, when Theodosius III. was on the
throne, made any special preparation,
but probably they did not. Perhaps it
was not necessary. Those were stirring
times for members of the new faith,
and they had little opportunity to grow
obese. But, as a rule, to fast success
fully it is said to be necessary for a man
to abstain beforehand, and reduce him.
self most carefully to the required con-
dition by q long course OF preparation.
Pre-eminent at this art of ~suspending
animation-for IN art it becomes-are
the Easterns, and most wonderful stories
are told of the natives of India, which,
whether their powers are due to narcot-
les or any other process, seem to open
up-if true-a wide field of medical
study. One of these Indian stories, not
easily accessible, but of considerable
interest on account of the known We
racity of the witnesses, will probably be
read with interest at the present time,
and is inserted here. The author of it
was one Hon. Captain Osborn, and the
notes made of his statement, here SUBJ
Joined, come from an almost unique
copy printed for private circulation.
.'Runjeet Singh had heard from a
Seyd or Fakir, who lived in the noun
tains, that the latter could allow HIM
self to be buried when in a condition of
apparent death, without really ceasing
to live, seeing that he understood the
art of being brought back to life on be-
ing exhumed after several months had
passed. To the Maharajah this APP
peared to be a rank impossibility. In
order, however, that he should be con-
WINGED one way or the other, he Or
dered the Fakir to be summoned to the
Court, and caused him TO undertake the
singular experiment, under a threat
that no means of %precaution would be
wanting toward the discovery of fraud.
The Fakir consequently caused himself
to appear in a state of apparent death.
When every spark of life had seemingly
vanished, he was, in the presence Ofthe
Maharajah and the mobiles who sur
rounded him, wrapped up in the linen
on which he had been sitting. and on
which the seal of Runjeet Singh was
placed. The body was then deposited
in a chest, on which Runjeet Singh, with
his own hand, fixed a paddock. The
chest was carried outside the town and
buried i'm a garden belonging to the
Minister; barley was sown owe the
spot, a wall was erected around it, and
sentinels posted. On the fortieth dav,
when the chest containing the Fakir
was dug up and opened, the man was
found cold and stark in precisely the
same condition as that in which he had
been left. With much trouble he was
restored to life by means of heat APP
piled to the head, afflation in the ears
and mouth. rubbing the body. etc. The
Minister, Rajah Dhyan-Singh, assured a
friend that he had this Fakir,
whose name was haridas, for a
period of four months under the
earth at Jummoo in the mountains.
On the day of his burial he had
caused his beard to be shaved of, and
when he was taken up again his chin
was Just as smooth as on the day when
he was consigned to the earth-a proof,
as would seem, of suspended animation.
1t is related that the Fakir in question
took a purgative some time before the
burial display, and for several days
afterward lived only On a scanty milk
diet. On the day of the iuterment it is
said that. instead of taking any nour
ishment, he swallowed thirty yards of a
strip of linen of the breadth of three
fingers, which he Immediately drew up
again, his object being to clean the
stomach. However wonderful and per-
haps laughable these operations appear
to many, it is plain that these people
must have a singular control over the
different organs of their bodies, and
more especially over their muscular
c~ontractions. When all the necessary
preparations have been accomplished,
the Fakir closes all the openings of his
body with shoppers made of aromatic
wax. lays his tongue far back in his
throat, crosses his hands on his breast,
and suspends animation by means of
holding his breath. On his being
brought back to life one of the first op-
erations is. by means of the fingers, to
draw the tongue ava from the back
of the throat; q warm and aromatic
paste made of meal is then placed on
his head, and air is blown into his
lungs and into the ear-holes, from
which the wax shoppers have been re-
moved. the shoppers in the nostrils
being presently forced out with an ex-
first sign of q return to life. He then
gradually commences to breathe, opens
the eyes, and RECEIVERS consciousness,
continuous friction of the body being
carried on all the time.
Here is a further curious statement
of opinion on the subject of the Indian
stories from an equally rare source the
little pamphlet of Sir Claude Wade,
published in 1887. Il was present. he
writes, at the Court of Runjeet Singh
when the Fakir, mentioned by the Hon.
Captain Osborne, was buried alive for
six weeks; and, although 1 arrived a
few hours after his actual interment,
and did not, consequently, witness that
part of the phenomenon. L q the
testimony of Runjeet Singh himself. and
Others of the most credible witnesses of
his Court, to the truth of the Fakir
having been buried before them; and,
from my having been myself present
when he was d~isinterred, and restored
to q state of perfect vitality IN q posi-
ton 90 close to him IS to render any
deception impossible. it Is ny firm be-
lief that there was no colnGen ~ pro,
ducine the extraordinary s1et which l
have to relate. will briefly stGte what
l saw, to enable others to judge OF the
weight due to my evidence, and whetn-
er any proof of collision can, ] a their
opinion. be detected. On the approach
Of the appointed time. according TO m
vi~tation. / accompanied Runjeet Singh
70 the spot where the. Fakir had been
buried Il was In . square building,