Morning journal and courier., 1880-08-14
The Training ofa Hindu Faptr,


 The physiological training of the Hindu fa- kir for his profession is something worth study. He begins by abstention from food during the day and taking very reduced quantity at night. Certain articles are strict ly prohibited l; 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 ib limited to rice and wheat, his nitrogenous to milk and melted butter, (ghata, and as to the carbon hydrates, honey and sugar alone admissible. There are two or three articles familiar to Euro peans only by their Bengal names, which he is permitted to use but they are composed of the preceding ingredients in various propor- tions. Water is positively prohibited; but some scots allow the devotee to drink spar ingly of alcoholic beverages. Ills must next learn how to live underground, and for this purpose he digs a subterranean cavern, (the gubla, in which he passes most of his time. The temperature must be warm and perfectly even, and the cavern is entered only by a hole which can be closed with a stone. It is living sepulture. Indeed, the essentials of the mode of life are the complete occlusion of the free oxygen, impenetrable darkness, and an unbroken silence. He lies upon pal let of cotton wool-something warm and soft-at the bottom of this subterranean cell, and repeats from day to day the mystic word E ton of universal life-a being more transcen- dental than that of Hegel. The devotee takes occasional walks but is very slow in his move ments, so to lessen the rapidity of thesres- piration. He repeats his "Om," sometimes 1O GOO times day, and has other syllables, among which are Ram" ''Ham, " ''Lam," Ram, :" ''Soham, /" ''Yam," of which he per- forms end'e 'ess series of repetitions, arranging them in every order of which they are sus- ceptible, and rigidly following a prescribed order for given number of repetitions. He trains himself to sit squatted for hours to- gether in certain peculiar attitude, (the sid
 dhasana, which consists in doubling the left leg under the body, so to rest upon the heel of the left foot, while the right leg is ex- tended forward. In this position, with his right arm extended, he holds the big toe of the right foot in his right hand, and with the left arm hexed 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 fa- kir sits for hours together; that is, when he is not standing upon his head or training himself to take deep inspiration and expel it slowly-taking 12 seconds to breathe in and 24 to breathe out the cubic feet of atmos- phere that the lungs contain. Besides these exercises his tongue has to be cut 24 times, as to sever all the igatures one by one, and enable him to fex it backward and close the throat with it's tip. This extraor- dinary discipline is steadily prosecuted for years, and at length the fakir tries his first experiment with feigning death, allowing himself to be shut up in his subterranean cell and sealed therein with every precaution, generally for week or two at first, then for month or two months, lying or squatting in a state of trance, with the tip of the tongue closing the throat, without perceptlbe action of the heart, and with the circulation of the blood apparently suspended. He would never recover himself from this dition 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 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 assistants are all this time engaged in rubbing the limbs are to pry open the rigid jaws and restore the tongue to it's normal position; then to rub the eyelids with melted butter until they can be unc.osed, revealing the glazed and motionless eyebal Finally, the hot cake on the top of the head is renewed. The heat acting upon the nervous centers of respira- tion and circulation, the breast heaves with convulsive throe, and the heart starts with violent pulsation. So many cases have been attested of this remarkable condition of sinu- lated death that its facts are practically be- yond dispute. Now, something of this kind would make real impression; it has pow erful dramatic features and it's physiology furnishes ample verge for novel and original observations