Maryland independent. [volume] (Port Tobacco, Md.) 1874-current, 1901-06-21
AN INDIAN FAKIR'S TRICK.
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An officer OF the British army. who
served in India with the Seventh and
the Fourteenth Hussars was spending
a few weeks in New York. Some
friends were talking with him about
India and his experiences there. and
the conversation turned to Indian ia
kris and their wonderful performances.
These fellows do perform some ex-
traordinary tricks said the British
officer. but extraordinary as they are.
the tricks are not so fearfully wonder
full as some OF the stories OF them
which are brought away from India by
the tourists who learn all about India
and Its people in the course Of few
weeks sojourn In some Of the coast
towns.
"As a matter OF fact. the greatest Of
the fakirs are never seen in the towns
and cities. Their religion and super
stition will not permit them to wander
from their native haunts, and only
those who have travelled or lived in
the widest and most remote parts OF
India have witnessed the performances
OF the really great tricks Of the fakirs.
you must remember at the ouset
that the real thing. to use an Ameri-
canism, in the way Of Hindoo fakir is
a man Of secrets and Of strange habits,
lie loves, or affects to love, solitude.
f.nd he works upon the superstitions Of
his fellows in performing what are re-
garded by the other Hindoos as sure
enough miracles. He lives in com
parative seclusion, existing on heav-
en- knows what.
"Of course. at every opportunity, he
extorts whatever he may from his fell
lows. but that Is not much. And.
stunning as he does the cities, II Is
only for verturesome foreign hunter
that he may now and then perform and
get any considerable backsheesh. In
his native. state he Is the filthiest hu-
man being ever capped my eyes on,
and by long habit he has fallen into
chronic state Of weirdness, so TO
speak.
Report travels much more rapidly
than one would suppose in the noun
tains of India. and once a party Of for
eign sportsmen or travellers appears
in the up country, fakir Is not long
ID striking the spoor and he keeps
to IL until he comes up with the strang-
ers. At such times the fakir usually
travels with a small boy and dirty
bag filed with a promiscuous jumblc
Of nuts, shells. trick paraphernalia and
what not
'The first time ever met a no-dis-
count fakir was in a wild, unfrequent-
ed part of India. where two other off,
GERS Of the regiment, an army surgecu
and myself, had gone on a hunting
trip. We had spent the day beating
for tiger. which got away, and had
returned to camp tired and out of
sorts. Taking an early dinner, for we
were horribly hungry, we sat down
outside the tent to smoke our cheroots.
Suddenly. just before sundown, we
noticed an uncanny looking person
coming toward us, grinning like a
black devil, salaaming at every step.
us could understand. We knew, OF
course, that our visitor was one of
the mountain fakirs, and we calmly
waited for him to proceed to business.
"As he put down his bag with great
deliberation, the boy accompanying
him curled himself on the ground and
seemed to be paying attention to moth
ing in particular. After a little the
old codger produced, seemingly from
nowhere. a ball of ordinary cotton
string, which had once been white,
such string as shopkeepers ordinarily
use to tie up light parcels with.
'The mans hair was gray, and his
hide was as black as Erebus. Heswore
a dirty turban and loin cloth, which
two articles constituted his apparel
The boys outfit was no less elaborate
After tossing the ball of string
about for a while-it was about the
size Of billiard ball-he threw it high
into the air, retaining the free end Of
the string in his hand. Up and up and
up went the ball. growing smaller and
smaller the higher it travelled, until
1t disappeared from sight altogether.
To all appearances it had sailed up un-
til 1t reached the nearest stratum Of
clouds and disappeared behind it. 1t
was the mightiest ball throwing we
had ever seen and was quite sufficient
to attract our attention TO anything
that the old boy might subsequently
do-and that was Just what he wanted.
"As soon as the ball had disappeared,
the fakir let go the free end OF the
string and there we had a line Of
cotton twine extending from about
five feet from the ground up to the
Lord knew where. When the old man
found that the ball remained up in
the air, refusing absolutely to come
down. no matter how wildly he gestlc-
ulated or how loudly he yelled at It,
he was apparently much annoyed.
He tugged and tugged at the cord.
but he couldn't pull the ball out OF
space, and as an evident last resort.
he called the boy. told him to climb the
cord and bring the ball down. Then
we saw the spectacle of boy 12 or
IA years old. climbing hand over hand
up a line of cotton twine about the
size of large pin.
Up and up, higher and higher. the
urchin went, climbing as a sailor
climbs a rope, until he. too, had dis
appeared behind the clouds which hid
the ball. When last we saw him. he
looked to be just about as big as the
ball did when it disappeared.
''As soon as the urchin disappeared
there was more trouble for the faklr.
The boy appeared very we'll satisfied
with the roosting place he had found
and the old man was no more success
full in getting him back to earth than
he had been with the ball OF twlne.
Then we did have sample of spleu-
did rage.
"The old rascal worked himself up
into a perfect fury. He yelled and
danced and gesticulated and gave the
best exhibition Of human demon that
ever saw. By way of heightening the
effect and increasing our interest in
the show. he dropped into broken but
intelligible English. the substance of