Morning journal and courier., 1880-08-24

FakIr Who Was Sealed Up, Buried, and
 Resuscitated After Forty Days-The
 Process of Reviving the Vital Spark.
 [From the London Telegraph
 We are not told whether the Seven Sleepers who retired to a cave in Ephosus during the reign of the Christian killing Emperor Deci- us, and only woke up 155 years afterward, when Theodosius II. 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 man to abstain beforehand, and reduce himself most carefully to the required condition by long course of preparation. Pre-eminent at this art of suspending animation-for an art 1t be- comes-are the Easterns, and most wonder full stories are told of the natives of India, which, whether their powers are due to marco tics 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 veracity of the witnesses will proba- ply be read with interest at the present time and is inserted here. The author of it was one Hon. Capt Osborn and the notes made of his statement, here subjoined, come from an almost unique copy printed for private circulation.
 '.Runjeet Sing had heard from Seyd or Fakir, who lived in the mountains, that the latter could allow himself to be buried when in condition of apparent death, without really ceasing to live, seeing that he under stood the art of being brought back to life on being exhumed after several months had passed. To the Maharajah this appeared to be rank impossibiity. In order, however, that he should be convinced one way or the other, he ordered the Fakir to be summoned by the Court, and caused him to undertake the singular experiment, under threat that no means of precaution would be wanting toward the discovery of fraud. The Fakir consequently caused himself to appear in state of apparent death. When every spark of life had seemingly vanished, he was, in the presence of the Maharajah and the nobles who surrounded him, wrapped up in the linen on which he had been sitting, and on which the seal of Runjeet Sing was placed. The body was then deposited in a chest, on which Runjeet Sing, with his own hand, fixed a heavy paddock. The chest was carried out side the town and buried in a garden belong ing to Minister barley was sown over the spot, a wall was erected around it, and senti- nels posted On the fortieth day, 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 applied to the head, affiation in the ears and mouth, rubbing the body &e The Minister, Rajah Dhyan-Sing, assured friend that he had this Fakir, whose name was Haridas, for 8 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, andSwhen 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 It is re- lated that the Falir in question took pur- gative some time before the burial display and for several days afterward lived only on scanty milk diet. On the day of the inter ment it is said that, instead of taking any nourishment, he swallowed 30 yards of a strip of linen of the breadth of three fingers, which he immediately drew up again, his object be- ing to clean the stomach. However wonder full and perhaps Imaginable these operations appear to many. it is plain that these people must have singular control over the differ ent organs of their bodies, and more especial ly over their muscular contractions. When all the necessary preparations have been ac- complished, the Falzir 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 operations is, by means of the fingers, to draw the tongue away from the back of the throat; a 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,