Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1893-09-16
WHAT THE FLESH CAN STAND.
HOrrifyinR Tests Applied by a Fakir
of Morocco.

From the Westminster Gazette.
The management Of the Aquarium at
Westminster has the laudable ambition to
secure novelties, but that ambition has
overreached itself in engaging the 'inyui-
nerable fakir.' Hadj Soliman ben Aissa.
This young mans performance is entirely
unsuited for a public exhibition. however
interesting it may be to scientists. Soiiman
Is pale-faced. muscular, French-speaking
Arab twenty-eight years of age, and he is
said to be priest of the Aissa sect of Mo-
hammedans. Yesterday he gave an exhi-
bitton of his powers to a body of medical
and press men, and Mr. Richie made no
secret of the fact that the salary paid TO
Soliman is one that some cabinet ministers
might envy.
The general appearance of the man in his
Arab costume was picturesque, and his cast
OF countenance Is ascetic A brazier filled
with burning charcoal stood on a table and
Soiiman, sprinkiing some mysterious powder
over the embers, inhaled the incense-scented
FUMES. he then went through the fakir
dance, which consists of throwing the head
backward and forward with such rapidity
that 1t needs must be screwed on we'll
Telling his audience in excellent French
that he was now insensible to pain, he ran
a long needle through the muscles Of each
arm. through each cheek and through the
throat below the Adams apple No blood
came except at CALL and the Arab did not
vince In the least
Then a more objectionable feat" was ac-
complished. Soliman ran a dagger into his
abdomen-about the zmiddle-fully three
inches deep. This was enough for some of
the audience, who left the hall But there
was more to follow. The Arab with a thick
needle pierced his tongue, the tongue being,
OF course, one of the most sensitive parts of
the human body. The fakir next drew out
his left eye, as far as II would go, with a
dagger A medical gentleman declared
afterward that it was done by dislocatiou
The eyeball is an unlovely thing-at least
those parts OF 1t which a merciful Provi-
dence keeps concealed-and the feat is as
disgusting as 1t is. happily. uncommon. The
curious thing about 1t was that there was
no running Of water.
After this IL seemed quite tame to see the
man take out half a dozen vipers brought
from his native Morocco, and allow ONE Of
them repeatedly to bite his hand The ven
omous creatures were a little larger than
those one often encounters in this country
Finally Soliman put his barred arm over a
hre TIL the limb blackened and the audience
crled' hoid. enough! The flesh did not
seem to scorch at all. Then there u,as a
repetition Of the dance. and the man went
at such pace that he fell forward He
dashed water over his head breathed bard
ana groaned. and made an exhausted bow 10
the audience. w" ~
The medical committee was unanimous
that the performance" was genuine hut
no one attempted to solve the riddle The
most probable explanation that occurs Is
tnat the powder fumes serve as an anaes-
thetic. The anthropologists of Munich seem
to have been delighted with the exhibition.
but the general public of this country. who
raised an outcry against the affair last week
at the chicago exposition, are much more
likely to be sickened than satisfied