The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1898-07-10
THE CONVENIENT TIGER
A HINDOO FAKIR's PERFORMANCES
AND MIND READING.
A Man who Found Himself in an East
Indian Jungle with a Bag of Rupees
and a Dishonest Servant.
New York Sun.

full-blossomed yogi in all my years in In
dia. One has to come to America to find
out the wonders and mysteries of theoso-
ply said J. C. Powton, formerly of her
Majesty's East India civil service. But
have seen performances of Indian fakirs
quite as inexplicable as anything 1 have
heard OF the Mahatmas. There was one
in particular in which / was concerned-a
matter of some twenty years ago. 1t had
a tragedy in il, and some things which
neither you nor can explain. You under
stand no doubt, what an Indian fakir is--a
man of the Brahminical faith who devotes
his life to communion with the Hindoo gods.
Through prayer and contemplation and the
leading of an ascetic life the fakir attains
powers that seem miraculous to the West
ern mind.
1.-THE fakir that I am to tell you about
came one afternoon to Archie Redvon's
bungalow, near Charpore, where / had been
staying for a few days during a round of
inspection. He was an old, brown-skinned
man with long, intellectual face, and hair
and beard snowy white. A waist cloth, tur-
ban, and sandals were all he wore and the
rest of his visible belongings consisted of
prayer mat, hubble-bubble, or native wa
ter pipe, and an earthen bowl from which
he ate his food. He spread his mat in the
middle of the compound, seated himself
cross-legged upon it, and began to take
tipsel balls from somewhere-from the mat,
it seemed, although 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 it was out of sight, and
none of them came down. Then he did the
boy and ladder and the mango tree trick
in manner that showed that he was a
fakir of no common order.
'Then he took hollow reed fashioned it
into a sort of pipe, and went round in the
compound and on the outside of the bum
galow, playing a weird tune. Presently
cobra poked it's head out from a hole in
the wall, it's body followed, and the serpent
came to the ground. and glded along after
the ia zir Soon another cobra crawled out
of the grass and followed the sound of the
pipe. When the fakir stayed his steps the
snakes stopped, and as he played on the
reed they reared theid hooded heads from
the ground and their bodies swayed to and
fro as if they were keeping time with his
piping. He called for a basket. house
servant brought him one, and the fakr
with his bare hands, took the snakes each
by. the neck and body, placed them in the
a cloth above them.
''This ended his performance. Redvon
gave him a rupee, and / handed him hVe,
for / had never seen anything to compare
with what he had done. He gravely took
the coins. after the manner of the Brah-
Minis. without thank or salaan1 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, tnen turned
to me with a gaze as searching. Have you
ever CHANGED to notice Hindoo,s eye-so
sombre black. so keen to see and compre-'
bend. and revealing no more than a pool
of ink might the thought behind it. But
/ noted in the fakir's eye what seemed to
me to be flash of perception, of discovery.
me- 1t was the episode of a moment. He
said nothing. bit picked up his mat and
pipe. put the basket and snakes on his
shoulder and went his way. taking the Oh
rection of Charpore. three miles away.
A VALUABLE sATCHEL.
ION the next dav had to go to Baghra
to meet the deputy collector there. To save
distance / decided to travel in a palanquin
over 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 travel
ing satchel were notes and coin to the
value of 1900 rupees, which I was taking
to the deputy collector. At the last hour
Redvon showed some anxiety about my TAX
ing the route had chosen.
"'Once your start is made. don't waste
any time in getting through to Baghra,' lie
said, Beyond Charpore the road is through
jungle all the way. There's a chance of
dacorts-and then if your palanquin bearers
should run upon them or get a tiger scare.
they would think nothing of setting down
the palanqun and leaving you in the jungle.
or course. you have your revolver by you
in good working order?'
IT had cleaned and oiled and reloaded my
revolver that morning, and told Redvon so.
But ne had still another caution to give
me. He looked at Nagho who was filling d
water vessel from chatty at the farther
end Of the veranda.
That servant of yours, have you had
that he is a hill man by birth. that he talks
the argot OF the Indian thieves guilds. and
he carries a thulwar. Do you know that you
can trust him?
'"This was news to me about Nagho.
had hired him two months before insCalcut-
ia He had come well recommended and had
the idea that he should have carried a. thul'
war unknown to me. The thulwar: let me
explain, is the wide laded knife which the
men of the hill tribes use so effectively in
fighting. welding 1t at close quarters by
throwing IT, With his thulwar, hill man
cut off the branches. of tree twenty PAGES
away or lop mans arm from his body.
made up my mind that / would find out
more about Nagho before I took him with
nothing that I could well do in the matter.
L think the Hindoo is all right, said
to Redvon. III have my eye on him
though. Goodbye. Hope I'll see you al
Baghra next week.
I'VE shook hands. and the four bearers
of the palanquin trotted away with me at q
-mile-an-hour gait, with Nagho and
two relay bearers following. at Charpore
where we stopped a few minutes to rest
the bearers got hold of a report about 9
tiger which was said to have killed a man
or two lately on the road to Baghra. and
when they started on it was with little OF
the Willingness that they had shown in the
beginning We had got about four miles
beyond Charpore when we met crowd OF
grass cutters coming on the run for the
village, and they shouted Tiger! Tiger as
they came near US. ] managed to find out
from them that no one had been hurt, but
that one of them thought that he had seer
tiger. That was enough for my six palan-
quin bearers They set the palanqun down
and Joined the grass cutters in their run
for the village. leaving me with Nagho in
the Jungle.
SAVED BY A FALL.
1T reckoned that it was about ten miles
further to Baghra, and decided that would
walk there rather than turn back. 1 spread
my umbrella to protect me from the sun
and started along the path, with Maggie
following. carrying the satchel. 1t was a
rough road. miry in places. l had to stoI
often to rest so as not to be overcome by
heat and darkness fell before we had made
a third of the remaining distance to Baghra
But l plodded on in the darkness, feeling
rather than seeing my way. and hoping that
nearer Baghra road would improve. / was
beginning pretty thoroughly to distrus'
Nagho There had come unpleasant
change of expression in his face since the