The Grenada gazette. (Grenada, Miss.) 1885-18??, 1885-10-31
and . guard placed Four weeks after.

and a guard placed -Four weeks after
ward the body was taken up and found
In the same position IS when placed
The teeth were 80 firmly pressed to-
gether, however. that an iron instru.
ment had to be used before the mouth
could be opened and water trickled into
the throat Consciousness returned
slowly. tho fakir began to speak in 0
low voice, and after awhile grew SC
lively that he expressed his readiness
to submit to burial a year longer If only
the Prince should command him.
In another Ease a fakir was buried
without first being placed In d box.
The experiment was made at a military
station. and the officer in charge be-
eaiiis ST frightened that he ordered tie
disinterment after only a few days.
Though the process Of Identification oc.
cupied more than an hour, it was suc
cessful.
Prof. Preyer, in his work 'Erfors-
chung des Lebens," says that q num-
Der of cases of this kind have been ver-
flied. and reports at length on the
preparations which the fakir must OBJ
serve. Preyer, indeed, comes to the
conclusion, from q study of cases Of
suspended animation of men and ami.
mails, that between life and death there
Is another condition, which he styles
anaboise or ~lifeless. The winter sleep
of animals, which. without breaking,
and with a minimum movement of the
heart, lie in a state of ~torpidity. during
which they can be placed under water
or land, in the midst of dangerous
gases, can evidently not be called life,
nor can it be termed death, since de-
composition does not set in. The Ger
MAI savant comes to the belief, there.
fore, that there is q state in which
consciousness and the functions OF
life are brought to a standstill, but in
which the capability of existence re.
mains. Life is extinguished. but death
has not begun its work. To bring on
this condition at will is, therefore, the
fakir's art and secret. Braid goes into
q long discussion as 10 how the fakirs
came to discover their mysterious ar|
sometimes called jugglery. He cites a
passage in the Dabistan, which says
hat the Fogins had the custom, when
afflicted with any disease from which
there was no hope Of relief, to put
themselves in a condition resembling
the winter sleep of animals, and then
allow themselves to be buried in order
to be spared the terrors Of gradual dis
solution and suffering. He believes
that the accidental disinterment OF such
an individual led to the fakirs' discov.
cry, and that fresh air brought the
patient to life again. DR.. du Prel, how
ever. does not accept this explanation,
rather inclining to the view that the
custom of the fakirs allowing them
selves to be buried alive is an abuse O.
the earlier exercises done in the service
of the ecstatic phases of their religion
The act of putting ones self in {
somnambulistic ecstatic condition
has always played grea
role in Indian philosophy ant
religion, and the fakirs the Lowest
grade in the order of Brahmlns-havt
developed the mystery to its presen'
phase of apparent death, burial, anc
identification for the purpose of gain
ing a comparatively easy livelihood
This capacity, however, is only n o
the many remarkable powers of which
the Indian fakirs are possessed. DR.. d.
Prel refuses to place their production
in the category of 'jugglery.' an(
says in conclusion: EVERY Or.entalis
knows that there is no jugglery in thu
burial of these apparently dead fakirs
We have undoubtedly to do with n yer.
remarkable ~psychical power, of which
at present, we know but very little. l
is to be hoped that European scientist
will eventually make the fakirs the sub
iects of their earnest investigations
Whoever takes in hand the book of thu
French savant Jacoliot, Voyage d.
Pays des Fakirs Charmeurs,' and there
in reads about the experiments mad'
by the Fakir Cowindasamy in Benares
will quickly come to the conviction
that we Europeans have much to learl
in India, of which at present we hav'
only the faintest glimmering.'-N Y
Mail and ErpreSS.