The Globe-republican., 1891-06-17

ahastri. Col Meadows Taylor was
with him on the journey; and his We
racity is above all suspicion. How ex-
plain this case? A singular coinci-
dence, you will say. Very we'll Here
is another, where coincidence is out OF
court altogether.
Years ago 1 was present at rare
scene, while visiting native gentle
man of rank. He had just received the
welcome news that he would at the
distance of some months have another
olive branch in his home He sent at
once Tor a fortune-teller; and the fu-
ture was forecast in my presence. The
man eame-one of the class called
'.rammalls," that is fortune-tellers by
means of dice or ''raml." Their dice
are peculiar. They consisted OF set
Of three; each one consisting. In Its
turn, of a number of cubical dice Il
forget. at this distance of time, IT they
were six or seven) strung together on
slender metal rod. Each cube was
made of brass, and had cabalistic fig
ures on each of its four exposed sur
faces Through the other two surfaces
the rod passed. and on it each cube
two Of its sides almost touching the
next two-revolved freely, and indie
pendently of the other cubes The
man having made his salaam. sat down
as desired on the edge of the carpet on
which We were all seated.
do you know why sent for you?"
asked my friend. The Rammall made
no reply: but producing his three long
dice, or rather sets of dice, he handed
them to my friend to cast For this
purpose, he laid them side by side in
the open palm of his right hand. the
fingers being slightly curved. With a
gentle but quick motion. alternately
advancing and retiring his hand. he
caused the dice to roll. now westward,
and now fngersward. on his hand.
Shaking them thus for few seconds
both the absolute and the relative posi-
tions of the cubes and their surfaces
necessarily changing at each roll-he
at length cast them on the carpet on
which we were sitting. AS he did this
with some violence and to little dis
lance, the dice rolled good deal before
they came to a final rest. The fortune
teller gathered them up together. care
fully avoiding any disarrangement OF
the order and position of the cubes or
their surfaces He placed the three sets
| of dice on the carpet before himself.
| and seemed. after carefully examining
| the cast Of the dice, to go into deep
thought and complicated calculations.
Let US see There were, say. six
cubes on each of the three slender rods,
and each cube had four marked sur
faces. There were therefore seventy
two surfaces. to combine in sets of six
exposed surfaces on each rod: and these,
again, with the positions of planets and
other fortune-telling matters. The
mum Der, therefore, of the possible COM
! binations mot perrnutations) is practic-
ally as limitless as are the eventualitie>
of human life.
After awhile. the Eammall said: You
wish to consult me regarding your
House = meaning. OF course. my
| friends wife Both being Mohammed-
ans. etiquette did not allow more di-
rect ailusion to the lady. My friend.
admitting that he had guessed rightly
land thus far it might easily have been
a good guess and no Inore). again took
up the proffered dice, and went with
them into the private apartments of the
house to get the lady's cast A Moham-
medan gentlenan's wife is never shown
to any of the opposite Sex except the
! nearest relatives. The fortune teller
meanwhile took his ''tasbeeh'' or rosary
off his wrist. and began telling the
names Of God in Arabic on his beads
The lady having made a cast as her
husband had done. he carefully brought
back the dice undisturbed to the for
tune teller. The rosary was replaced
| round the wrist: and the Rammall ex-
amined the dice carefully. He pro-
ducsd and consulted Self-made alma
nae. the sun. moon. stars and planets
all coming in for their share of ques-
| tioning. He took paper. pen and ink.
and made calculations. After about a
quarter of al hours work. he read out
| the results: % The lady would give
birth to child-t2) Who would be a
daughter mot so welcome an addition
to oriental families as son)-(S) On a
day which he named. and which was
vet over seven months off. "a The
child would die within five months aft
er its birth: and (5) she would be his
last child: but why. he could not Tor
would not) tell. as in the ordinary course
of nature my friend might expect sew
eral more.
The man was paid sun OF money,
and went his way. Months passed.
The child was born on the day fore
told: proved to be daughter; died a
week after completing its fourth
month of life: and my friend himself
died within the year. All the five pre-
dictions were effectually fulfilled. Such
a complicated series of verified coinci-
dences or guesses would be as wonder
full at least as the mans having some
how got the knowledge Of the future.
There are jugglers and jugglers, who
perform the celebrated mango trick
the mango being luscious Indian
fruit in perfection in July and August.
The Urinary j. Ter causes a miser-
able mango tree, StuHteG abortion.