The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1898-06-14
THE CONVENIENT TIGER.
A HNDOO FAKIR's PERFORMANCES
AND MIND READING.

Adventure of a Man who Found
Himself in an East Indian Jungle
With "A Bag of Rupees and a Dis
honest Servant-GOOd Work of the
Tigar and Cheering Presnece of
the Fakir.
From the New York Sun.
''I don't know that have ever met
full blossomed yogi in all my years in In
dia. One has to come to America 10 find
out the wonders and mysteries of theoso-
ply" said ]. c. Powton, formerly of her
Majesty's East India civil service. But
1 have seen performances of Indian fakirs
quite as inexplicable as anything 1 have
heard of the Mahatmas. There was one
in particular in which I was concerned
a matter of some twenty years ago. 1t
had tragedy in it, and some things
which neither you nor l can explain. You
understand no doubt, what an Indian ia
kir is--a man of the Brahminical Gath
who devotes his life to communion with
the Hindoo gods Through prayer and con-
temptation and the leading of an ascetc
life the fakir attains powers that seem
miraculous to the Western mind.
1.-THE fakir that L am TO tell you about
came one afternoon to Archie Redvon's
bungalow, near Charpore, where I had
been staying for a few days during a
round of inspection. He was an old,
brown-skinned man, with a long, intel
lgent face, and hair and beard snowy
white. A waist cloth, turban, and sandals
were all he wore and the rest of his yjs-
E4an. kaA .
hubbe-bubble, or native water pipe, and
an earthen bowl from which he ate his
food. He spread himself cross-legged up
on it, and began to take tinsel balls from
somewhere-from the mat, 1t seemed, al
though none could be seen upon it-and
to throw them one by one up into the air.
Each one, as he threw it, went sailing
up, up, until IL was out of sight, and none
of them came down. Then he did the boy
and ladder and the mango tree trick in
a manner that showed that he was fal1ir
of no common order
"Then he took hollow reed, fashioned
ii into a sort of pipe, and went round in
the compound and on the outside of the
bungalow playing a weird tune. Pres
entity a cobra poked its head out from
mole in the wall ats body followed, and
the serpent came TO the ground, and glided
along after the fakir Soon another cobra
crawled out of the grass and followed the
his steps the snakes stopped, and as he
played on the reed they reared their hood
ed heads from the ground and their bod
| les sWayed to and fro as if they were keep
| ing time with his piping. He called for
| basket. A house servant brought him one,
| and the falIir, with his bare hands, took
| the snakes each by the neck and body,
placed them in the basket, pressed their
| heads down, and tied a cloth above them.
This ended his performance. Redvon
| gave him a rupee, and l handed him five,
| for I had never seen anything to compare
with what he had done. He gravely took
| the coins, after the manner of the Brah-
Minis, without a thank or salaam. But as
| he dropped them somewhere in his waist
| cloth his eye fell on my servant Nagho,
STANDING at my shoulder and he looked
! at him with a strange intentness, then
| turned TO me with a gaze as searching.
Have you ever CHANGED to notice a Hin
| DOCS eye-so sombre black, so keen TO see
| and comprehend, and revealing no more
| than a pool of ink might the thought be-
| hind it. But 1 noted in the falir's eye
| what seemed to me to be q flash of per-
! ception, of discovery, as his look rested
on Nagho and then on me. 1t was the
! episode of a moment. He said nothing,
| but picked up his mat and pipe, put the
| basket and snakes on his shoulder, and
went his way, taking the direction of Char
| pore, three miles away.
ION the next day l had to go to Bagh-
ra to meet the deputy collector there. To
| save distance 1 decided to travel in a pal
| anquin over a bullock trail too rough for
| a carriage, instead of going twice as far
| round by the highway. / made my start
in the middle Of the afternoon, expecting
| to arrive in Baghra in the early evening.
| In my travelling satchel were notes and
| coin to the value of 1900 rupees, which l
was taking to the deputy collector. AT the
|
about my taking the route 1 had chosen.
once your start is made, don't waste
| any time in getting through TO Baghra,
| he said. Beyond Charpore the road is
! through the jungle oil the way. There's a
! chance of dacoits-and then if your palan-
! quin bearers should run upon them or get
| a tiger scare they would think nothing of
setting down the palanquin and leaving
you in the jungle. of course, you have
your revolver by you in working oCder?"
Il had cleaned and oiled and reloaded my
| revolver that morning, and told Redvon
so. But he had still another caution 10
| give me. He looked at Nagho. who was
filling a water vessel from a chatty at the
| further end of the veranda.
! That servant of y0urs-haVe you had
| him long?" he asked. My steward tells
me that he IS a hill man by birth, that he
talks the argot of the Indian thieves guilds
and he carries q tulwar DO you know thai
you can trust him.?
This was news 10 me about Nagho.
had hired him two months before in Cal
! cutta. lie had come well recommended and
| had proved a capable servant. I did not
like the idea that he should have carried
a tulwar unknown 10 me. The ulwar, let
! me explain. is the wide-bladed knife which
| the men of the hill tribes use so effectively
| in fighting, welding il at close quar- ers or
| throwing IT, With his tulWar a Hill man
! can cut Off the branch Of q tree twenty