The Morris County chronicle. [volume] (Morristown, N.J.) 1877-1915, 1900-05-04
SOME INDIAN MAGIC.
QUEER FEATs THE FAKlRs PERFORM
IN BROAD DAYLIGHT.

A Fire and Water Trick That Is
Pretty Hard to Explain and an APP
parent Display of strength That
Passes Understanding.
The question of how the fakirs of
India perform their wonderful tricks is
matter that has for centuries interest
ed scientists, and the best explanation
that has yet been offered of the matter
is that it is done by hypnotic power
that is, that the fakirs simply hypno-
tie the entire audience and make them
think that they saw trees grow out of
the ground in a second. Libraries have
been written on the subject. In his
book entitled Quaint Corners of An
cient Empires" Mr.. Michael Meyers
Shoemaker deals in an interesting
manner with the Indian fakirs.
In writing about the fakirs he says:
"The statement has been made by such
prestidigitators as Hermann and KEEL
lar that they had never seen any tricks
by these men of India which they
could not explain. Be that as it may,
these common street magicians of In
dia do some very clever things.
Certainly the performance before
the Grand hotel, Colombo, this morn
ing, under the blazing sunlight and not
three feet from the locker on was re-
markable. AS to the mango tree trick,
there appeared strong resemblance
between tree grown yesterday and
the one produced this morning. But it
was in the other performances that the
observers were most interested.
s'In one instance the fakir took a
small jar of metal and handed it
around to show that it was empty
Then, placing a copper coin between
his teeth, he began to blow, and smoke
soon issued from his mouth and nos
trils. The jar. which was held aloft
all the time, was found filed with wa
ter, which commenced to boil furiously.
Passing it aside, he opened his
mouth and elected jets of living flame.
Indeed the whole cavity of the throat
appeared to be filed with fire, which
ignited anything with which it came
in contact. We all saw the empty jar,
the filled jar, the boiling water and the
fire, but the fire never approached the
jar.
Another trick consisted in causing
a dead and dried up cobra to come to
life, or so it appeared. The snake is
usually kept in small, round, fiat
basket with closely fitting cover
This we saw was empty, and into it
the fakir laid the fiat, dried skin of a
dead serpent.
Placing it not three feet from our
circle and in the brilliant light of the
southern sun, he covered the basket
with its lid and then made the usual
passes with the inevitable cloth, about
a yard square. which he held by two
corners to show that it contained moth
ing.
His costume consisted of one gar
ment of the shirt order, the sleeves of
which were tucked up at the shoulders,
affording it would seem. scant oppor-
tunity to hide anything, yet when, after
a few waves of the cloth, he removed
the lid of the basket the dead snake
was gone and in its place rose the ma
jestic head and neck of one of the lar
gest of cobras.
1T must be remembered that when
we see such work in England or Amer
lea it is done at a distance and on the
stage. with all the assistance of stage
lights and shadows. but in this case we
were out in the plain air and near
enough for the serpent to have stung
us.
''Fhe last trick consisted of a display
of apparently wonderful strength A
boy of 10 years of age was tied up in a
large scarf with it's ends attached to
two strong cords. At the ends of these
cords were hollow brass cups about
the size OF an acorn. The fakir, raising
the upper lid of each of his eyes. in
serted these cups hereunder. with the
hollow side next to the eyeball. after
which he pulled the eyelids well down.
'"Then. with hands on hips and head
well back, he arose to his full height.
lifting the boy foot or more off the
ground and swinging him from side to
side, the entire weight of course falling
upon the brass cups 1t seemed mar
vel that the eyeballs were not destroy
ed
Perhaps those who understand these
matters can explain all that was done.
but certainly no magicians on our stage
have accomplished similar feats, and
yet these men are but common street
performers"