The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1896-07-29
GREAT TRICKS OF
FAMOUS FAKIRS
The More Astounding fcats Now As.
cribed to Hypnotic Influence.
THE AUDIENCE IS SIMPLY FOOLED
An Ancient Trick That Can Not BE
Explained in Any Other W0y..A
Tclltaie Camera Reveals That the
Physical Features Had No Exist.
encc..Purcly a Case of Eye Illu.
sion.
From the Globe-Democrat.

sion.
| From the Globe Democrat.
Among the wondrous stories of the
East told us by travellers of past ages,
none have seemed less credible than
! those they have left us of some of the
feats of magic or jugglery witnessed
| by them in this mysterious land Of mar
vels. In olden times the direct inter-
vention of the evil one was sufficient to
explain these and every other seeming
/ ly supernatural performance. 1t was
! the devil who enabled Simon Hagus to
make statues walk, who helped him to
| fly, to pass through fire unScathed and
/ to change at will his shape, just as. at
| the present day, he aids the Shamans
/ or Northern Asia and the medicine men
/ among our Indians. The savage crowd
/ is satisfied with the explanation
/ VOuched and seeks no further. Not so
with us. While we have abandoned the
| faith and scorn the superstitious ciedui-
/ ity of our forefathers, still we feel the
need of some other form of belief in
| which we can find plausible, if not salts
| factory. explanation for the seemingly
!
tons which oftentimes occur before
/ us. So, at the present day, hypnotic
| suggestion is offered as the explanation
! Of these wondrous tricks. and were it
| not that they are reported to have been
| witnessed ut one aud the same time by
! large numbers of persons. all of whom
/ can not be supposed to have been innu-
enCed, or, at all events Influenced i'm a
/ like degree, by the hypnotic influences.
/ the mystery which hangs over some of
these performances were perhaps
solved; such, however. is not the case,
and these tricks. remain, so far as am
aware. unexplained,
There is in the narratives of several
of the Oriental writer's who have wit
! messed these tricks evidence that they
also, mishelievcd the testimony of their
senses and sought an explanation in
the existence Of what we now call hyp-
motto suG Ggestion. This is especially the
case in the remarks made by the Mo-
hammedan Judge to Ibn Batuta. and in
the story of The Planting of the Pear
Tree" by P'u Sung Ling
SHROUDED IN MYSTERY.
The most wonderful of these tricks.
and that which remains to the present
day the most completely shrouded IN
mystery, though of its actual perform
ancc, at least in times Coua by, there
appears to he littlc doubt is that which
Is first mentioned by the Arab tray
eler. lin Batuta. who visited China in
the fourteenth century. While in the
! present City of HanE-chou not far
I from, fhn ,pnt,ir,p, f Ia, ,,,t
| Shanghai, he was entertained at a ban
| quet by the Niceroy of the province ?,
| and this is how he Describes what oc-
| CURED:
AT the banquet were present the
| Khan's jugglers, the chief of whom was
| ordered to show some of his wonders
| He took wooden ball in which there
were holes, and in these long thongs
and threw it up into the air until it
was lost to sight, as / myself wit
messed, while thong remained in his
hand. He then commanded one of his
disciples to take hold of and to ascend
| by this thong. which he did. until he
also went out OF sight. The coniure-
| then called to him three times, but no
| answer came: he then took n knife in
his hand, as If in great rage, laid hold
! OF the thong, and disappeared also. By
and by he throw down one of the boys
! hands, then foot. then the other hand
! and the other foot. then the trunk. and
finally the head. He then came down
himself, painting for breadth, and his
| clothes stained with blood, and kissed
| the ground before the Nicoroy. who
| spoke to him in Chinese and gave him
some order. The jugGler then took the
limbs of the boy and put them one 20
| the other and gave them n kick, when
the boy stood up complete and erect.
l was dumfounded, and was seized in
consequence with n palpitation of the
heart, but some cordial was given me
! and recovered. The Kazi Gudgc),
who was sitting beside ne. swore Wal
lah, there was neither climbing up or
coming down, nor cutting Of limbs,
twas nothing more than iugglery!'
CURIOUS ILLUSIONS.
The great Mogol Jehanguir, who sue
| Ceeded his father Akbar in 1905. has left
| in his autobiography a long and inter-
esting account of the wonderful feats
once performed before him by seven
| jupglers from Bengal. The feats he
witnessed were twenty-eisht in number.
among them being two which, taken to-
! gether, constitute the one described
/ previously by Ihn Batuta.