The Camden chronicle. (Camden, Tenn.) 1890-current, 1901-08-09
AN INDIAN FAKIR'S TRICK.

looked to be just about as big as the
ball did when 1t disappeared.
'As soon as the urchlh disappeared
there was more trouble for the faklr.
The boy appeared very well 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 Irvine.
Then we did have a sample OF splen-
did rage.
Tho old rascal worked himself ND
into a perfect fury. He yelled and
danced and gesticulated and gave the
best exhibition of a human demon that
| ever saw. BY way Of heightening the
effect and increasing our interest in
the show, he dropped into broken but
Ineligible English, the substance of
which was:
Am to be made an idiot Of by
ball of string and a fool by chok-
era (small boy? Allah forbid! will
them both teach that they may not
trifle with one so old and so wise.
Then rushing to the filthy old bag
that had been lying all this time on
the ground, he thrust an arm into it
and drew forth the most murderous
looking knife | ever saw. It had
curved blade about nine inches long.
three inches across at the hilt and Ia
pering to a fine point Placing the
knife between his teeth and grasping
the twine in both hands the old bow
showing marvellous agility for one of
his apparent age went up the cord MS
the boy had, hand over hand. and in
less time than it takes to tell it he too
had disappeared from view.
He had us all going by this time.
and we just sat there gaping up into
the air like lot of precious idiots.
There was a seconds absolute silence,
and then an agonizing yell, so piercing
that 1t sunk into ones very bones. An
other second, which seemed like an
age, and then we saw a dark object
come hurting down from the sky.
Down and down it came until it landed
only a few feet from us with a sick
ening sort of thud.
Looking to see what it was, We saw
the head of the boy who had climbed
the cord lying there, severed from the
body at about the middle of the neck.
A closer examination showed that the
face wore a horrible expression, while
the scarlet blood poured from the di-
Yided arteries and the dark venous
hInnn ~
OF the newly cut muscles and the wind
pipe, and the clearly severed joints of
two of the ceryical yertebrae were
quite plain to the army surgeon and to
the rest Of us, all of whom knew @
little of anatomy from the field hos
pitfalls.
We hadn't by any means got over
the shivery feeling we experienced at
seeing the head of the late urchin,
when down came an arm, cut off
through the shoulder joint and giving
all the anatomical relations in that
part quite plainly. A moment later
the other arm dropped at our feet and
an examination showed that it had
been cut off in exactly the same way.
The doctor said the old rascal carved
cleverly enough to have been a surgeon
at the Royal college.
I'VE were about ready for anything
after that. and so were not particularly
surprised when a leg, severed at the
hip joint and exposing the head OF
femur, the muscles twitching just as
you may have seen them twitch in a
freshly killed animal. came along. The
other leg followed in due time and
then came the trunk.
"A moment later the old man was
seen coming down the string, and
when he dropped to the ground from
the end of it he was literally covered
with gore from head to foot. The knife.
still held between his teeth, was fair
ly dripping with blood. His eyes APP
peared wilder than ever, his features
drawn, and he paced back and forth
for few seconds like chained tiger.
Then he collected the head, limbs
and trunk and tossed them into the
old bag. While watching this action
we lost sight of the string and the
knife and never saw them again. Sling
ing the bag over his shoulder, he
walked away. We knew this was only
a bluff, because he hadn't yet received
any backsheesh and we knew he never
would depart without that.
HE had only moved off a few PAGES
when we saw that something was NOV
ing inside the bag The old man
stopped, put on a surprised expression,
but the bag down on the ground, and
in a moment out crawled the boy as
sound in wind and limb as he had ever