The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1897-11-28
TELLS NAMES FROM DATES.
CLEVER TRICK OF a YOUNG EGYP-
TIAN IN NEW YORK.

Il
Given the Birthday of Father and
SON, He Can Pick Out the Name Of
the Latter-Art of Ancient Magi-
cinns-HOw 1t Is Done.
From the New York Advertiser
| The ancient magicians taught an art
| of ascertaining from the disposition of the
| heavens the names of spirits supposed to
| rule over certain kinds of work, so that
persons about to undertake any particular
| task might find out the proper genius to
| propitiate. According to the natives of
Egypt, the home of astrology and magic,
who constitute a colony in this city, GER
| tain of the more learned of their country
men have adapted the art of ascertaining
names and are able to tell names of any
| individual on earth If informed of the day
and month of his birth and of his fathers
| That feat, they assert, is performed by the
aid of mathematics and astrology and
| those who can execute it they hold in rev.
erence.
Only one man of the many Egyptians in
this country possesses the knowledge, they
declare, and he is a young man by the
name of Harith bin Khaldah, law stud
ent. Khadah, as he terms himself, is
about q years old, tall and striking in
appearance. His features are good, and
although his hair is jet black in color and
typcally Egyptian, his complexion is not
so dark as that of the average South
American. He speaks English with a de-
cided accent, but possesses an excellent
knowledge of the language. When asked
if he were versed in the art of discover
ing the names of persons unknown to him,
as asserted by his countrymen, he replied
in the affirmative and demonstrated his
ability. He denied any knowledge of the
magicians art, however, claiming that the
feat was simple to those who knew how
to perform it, and required nothing more
than an ability to calculate quickly, a
slight acquaintance with astronomy and
a Knowledge of Arabic
1T is well known among the better ed
ucated classes in Egypt" he continued
but l believe l am the only person who
has adapted. it TO the English language
1t is performed in this way: First you
obtain the day and month of the birth of
the person whose name is to be ascertain
ed; then you obtain the day and month of
his fathers birth, if a mans name is to be
found out, but if a woman's name is re-
month
or the birth of the mother instead of the
father. Now, suppose these dates are, say
April 81 and Oct. u, respec lively you
multiply q by II. Then you get the first
letter of the name to be found out and
take the number of the position which it
occupies in the alphabet and add it to the
result. Say it is c, for example G is
the third letter of the alphabet, conse-
quently you add to the result obtained
by multiplying y and p. You then take
the last figure of this result, which in this
case would be 5, and with a chart, in
which the heavens are mapped to contain
only six planets, circulating round the sun
in this order-Mercury, Venus. Mars. Jup-
tier, Saturn and the moon-you find the
fifth from the sun. The name of this
planet in Arabic will give you the con
sonants of the name to be found out and
with those it is easy to fill in the vowels
The trick is known in Cairo as 'Eltan-
geem, and while it is wen understood by
the better educated, it is by no means
common.
THE fact that the stars are used in per-
forming the trick leads to the idea formed
by the more ignorant classes that it is
accomplished by means of astrology This
is traceable to the desire to attribute all
effects to some cause, known or unknown
Belief in the doctrine of the influence of
the stars on the life and behavior of man.
kind is dead in civilized countries, and
yet it is strange coincidence that in con-
nection with the trick 1 have lust per
formed and explained to you, have found
that all men born on the same day of the
month, whose fathers were also born on a
certain day of a certain month have the
same Christian name.
How do you explain that? Is it not
possible that the disposition of the celes-
tial bodies has certain influences on men?
Most persons allow that the sun yields
much power over animal and vegetable
life, and that it has share in breeding
fevers and other diseases arising from the
evaporation of deadly fluids. The more
enlightened have not yet lost faith in the
old medical lore of critical times in sick
ness, such as the twelfth or twenty-fourth
hours or the third or ninth day. Few win
deny that the tides are raised by the
moon and sun. or that the trade winds
are caused by the suns heat, which also
causes the formation of rain clouds by
the evaporation of water.
IF the famine in India was caused BY
the state of the atmosphere, may not the
disposition of the heavens have been a
forecause of it? And going back further
If the potato disease was bred by the
state of the atmosphere, and the dispo-
sition of the heavens was a cause of it,
may not the celestial bodies have been the
cause of the emigration from Ireland?
I'VE all know we feel more cheerful
from the bright sunshine of a May morn
ing than from the rain of a gloomy No,
vember day, and that good or bad wealth
er makes a moody man merry and kind or
impels him to kick the cat and ill-treat
his wife. Upon such foundation as this
astrology was built undoubtedly. and il
has fallen, not from the badness of Its
basis, but from an overbuildng. In early
ages astrology and astronomy were one
study and in the last century Mr. Dunn.
the local weather forecaster might have
been accused of the possession of occult
powers. The general populace to-day
might entertain a higher opinion of him
perhaps, if he possessed a tawny face,
grizzled hair, and beard of great length.
At least It might be more fearful of ridi,
culing him whenever his predictions are
not fulfilled. Mr.. Dunn realizes more
than any one else, probably, that it is un-
wise to put an overtrust in physical truths
Exceptions occur which may be said per-
haps, to prove the rule, but which are an
moving.
The planets sometimes prophesy quite
wide of the mark. 1t is related that all
Europe was in CONSERVATION in the ff-
teenth century, due to the predictions of a