The Milan exchange. (Milan, Gibson County, Tenn.) 1874-1978, 1880-09-09
HindOO Fakir---How They Simulate
Death for Weeks at Time.

The physiological training of the Hin
doc fakir for his profession is something
worth study. He begins by abstention
from food during the day and taking
very reduced quantity at night. Ger
tain articles are strictly prohibited;
among them are salt, fish and meat, oil
and wine, mustard, onions, garlic and
turnips. He must refrain from spices,
from all acids and acid preparations,
and from all pungent articles except
ginger. His carbonaceous food is linn
tied to rice and wheat, his heterogeneous
to milk and melted butter (ghrta) and
as to the carbon hydrates, honey and
sugar are alone admissible. There are
two or three articles familiar to Euro
peans only by their Bengalnames which
he is permitted to use, but they are
composed of the preceding ingredients
in various proportions. Water is posi-
lively prohibited; but some sects allow
the devotee to drink sparingly of alco-
holic beverages. He must learn to live
underground and for this purpose he
digs a subterranean cavern (the gltlljiG)
in which he passes most of his time. The
temperature must be warm and per-
fectly even and the cavern is entered
only by hole which can be closed with
stone. 1t is a living sepulchre. In
deed, the essentials of the mode of life
are the complete occlusion of free oxy-
gen, impenetrable darkness and an I'M
broken silence. He lies upon a pallet
of cotton or wool-something warm and
soft-at the bottom of this subterranean
cell and repeats from day to day the
mystic word " Om," the Hindoo name
of the g;eat abstraction of universal
life-a being more transcendental than
that of Illegal. The devotee takes oc-
casional walks, but is very slow in his
movements, so as to lessen the rapidity
of the respiration. He repeats this
"Om' sometimes 10000 times day,
and has other syllables, among which
are BAN, p" " Han" " Lam, Ram"
90 Sonam," " YAM" of which he per-
forms endless series of repetitions, ar
ranging them in every order of which
they are susceptible, and rigidly follow
ing prescribed order for given num-
Der of repetitionS. He trains himself
to sit squatted for hours together in a
certain peculiar attitude (the Siddha-
Sana), which consists in doubling the
leg under the body, so as to rest
upon the heel of the left foot,
while the right leg is extended forward.
In this position, with the right arm I'D
vanced, he holds the big toe of the right
foot in his right hand and with the left
arm iexed under the body, grasps the
big toe of the left foot. This brings the
lower part of the face to rest upon the
breast-bone. In this awkward and
difficult attitude the fakir sits for hours
together; that is, when he is not stand
ing upon his head or training himself to
take a deep inspiration and expel it
slowly-taking twelve seconds to
breathe in and twenty-fOur to breathe
out the cubic feet of atmosphere that
the lungs can contain. Besides these
exercises his tongue has to be cut twenty
four times, SO as to sever all the ligatures
one by one, and enable him to fiex it
backward and close the throat with its
tip. This extraordinary discipline is
steadily prosecuted for years and at
length the fakir tries his first expert
ment with feigning death, allowing
himself to be shut up in his subterra-
mean cell and sealed therein with every
precaution, generally for week or two
at first, then for month or two months,
lying or squatting in state of trance.
with the tip of the tongue closing the
throat, without perceptible action of
the heart and with the circulation of the
blood apparently suspended. He would
never recover himself from this cOndi-
ton of suspended animation; but he can
be recovered by. proper manipulation,
which commences in pouring hot water
over the shriveled body, stiff and rigid
as q corpse, for some minutes. As the
bathing in hot water continues, the
arms and legs gradually relax from their
rigor A hot cake is next placed upon
the crown of the head and the plugs
| (made of cotton soaked in wax are re-
moved from the nostrils and ears. The
next steps-it being understood that as
sistants are all this time engaged in
rubbing the limbs-are to pry open the
rigid Jaws and restore the tongue to its
normal position; then to rub the eyelids
with melted butter until they can be
Enclosed, revealing the glazed and mo-
tionless eyeball. Finally, the hot cake
on the top of the head is renewed. The
heat acting upon the nervous centers OF
respiration and circulation, the heart
starts with violent pulsation. So many
cases have been attested of this remark
able condition of simulated death that
its facts are practically beyond dispute.
| Now, something of this kind would
make a real impression; it has powerful
dramatic features and its physiology
furnishes ample verge for novel and
original observation.-N Y. Times.