Barbour County index. [volume] (Medicine Lodge, Kan.) 1880-current, 1890-08-27
THE FAkIR.s CURSE.
Prophecy of Evil That Came True with
Crushing Effect

A Prophecy of Evil That Came True with
Crushing Eject.
James Mass, the traveller, tells this
story: 1T was about five o'clock in the
evening, and Colonel Yeager and sat on
the veranda of the Vidullah Hotel in
Bombay, and on the edge of the native
city which is called Vicullah, and not
Bombay. The Colonel is dead; all that
he once owned and loved is gone. He
was expecting his wife and daughter.
who had been out to England on years
visit, and the vessel was to arrive at
Calcutta next day, while we were going
to get the bungalow ready to receive
them. The Colonel was in the best of
spirits. He joked and laughed and
told old stories of love and war; how he
was nearly captured and murdered by
the renowned Nana-Said at Compore; of
his vast poppy plantations and the rev.
enue he derived from the opium he dis
titled every year. Finally we started
to walk to where VIC had our horses sta
bled, and then for a canter over the
beautiful roads to the bungalow fifteen
miles away. We had to go through vi
cullah to reach our destination. What
Kaleidoscope that native city is! The
burrah-wallah water carrier, wearing
nothing but breech clout, and the
male body servant, with his red turban
and long white Jackets Jews from Pal
estine, Parsees, fire worshipers. who
travelled 5000 miles over desert and
mountain from Persia and carried their
sacred fires, all picturesque, all in white,
bordered with red or other bright col
ors.
''Well, in turning a corner in Vicul-
lab we found a crowd being haranged by
one of the best known fakirs in India. |
had heard him spoken of as one who
could put a blight upon you. People
called him Sadi-Saib, Sadi, my master.
Colonel Yeager pushed through the
crowd to within few feet of the fakir,
to whom he said something in Hindo-
stanese. 1t seemed to enrage Sadi, who
jumped from his little platform in front
of Yeager, saying:
'Englishman, be careful, or blight
may fall upon you and yours. Tread
not upon the smallest thing Buddha has
created, or it may turn and sting you"
Before could stop him the Colonel
had cut the fakir across the face, and
with an oath had shouted Out of the
way, you Hindoo pigr
THE fakir with blazing eyes said:
'Englishman, you will not meet your
wife. You will not meet your child
Your plantations will be devastated;
your craven heart will wither within
you. You will die
THE fakir's words were prophetic. !
felt it then, and also think the Colonel
did. We reached the bungalow, and
were soon in bed. How l slept that
night l don't know. The words, En-
glishman, BEWARE were continuously
raging in my ear. Next morning went
into the breakfast room, and / shudder
when l think of it. The Colonel was
there walking up and down with tele-
gram in his hand, his face drawn, and
he looking twenty years older than he
did the night before. With tears in his
eyes he handed me this message:
Steamship Fiago went ashore at the
mouth of the Hoogaly. Your wife and
child drowned / have never seen the
Colonel since, but l have watched his
career. His poppy crop was failure
that year and it ruined him, his bunga-
low was burned by either accident or de-
sign, and Yeager died within a twelve
month of broken heart. "-Philadel-
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