The daily morning journal and courier., 1901-06-10
AN INDIAN FAKIR'S TRICK
MAGIC WHICH 4 BRITISH OFFICER
 EXPLAINS BY HYPNOTISM.

Climbed Up Into the SKY on flecf
 of TwIne and How the Boy Was Cut
 Up Into Pieces and Put Together
 Again-Hindoo JuggIery.
 An officer of the British army, who
 served in India. with the Seventh and
 the Fourteenth Hussars is spending a few weeks in New York. The other day
 some friends were talking with him
 about India, and his experiences there,
 and the conversation turned to Indian
 fakirs and their wonderful perfor-
 mances.
 ''These fellows do perform some ex- traordinary tricks" said the British of
 ficer, "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 matter of fact the greatest of the fakirs are never seen in the towns and cities. Their religion and supersti- tion 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 performance of the really great tricks of the fakirs.
 You must remember at the outset that the real thing, to use an American ism, in the way of a Hindoo fakir Is a man of secrets and of strange habits. He loves, or affects to love, solitude, and he works upon the superstition of his fellows in performing what are re- garded by the other Hindoos as sure- enough miracles, He lives in compar- ative seclusion, existing on heaven knows what.
 "Of course, at every opportunity, he extorts whatever he may from his fel- lows but that is not much. And, shun- ming as he does the cities, it is only for a venturesome foreign hunter that he may now and then perform and get any considerable backsheesh In his native state he is the f1lthiest human being ever clapped my eyes on, and by long habit he has fallen into chron- ic state of weirdness, so to speak.
 Report travels much more rapidly than one would suppose in the noun tains of India, and once party of for eign sportsmen or travellers appears in the up-country, fakir is not long in striking the spoor and he keeps to it until he comes up with the strangers. At such times the fakir usually travels with small boy and dirty bag filled with promiscuous tumble of nuts, shells, trick paraphernalia and what not
 'rThe first time I ever met no-dis- count fakir was in a wild, unfrequented part of India, where two other officers of the regiment, an army surgeon and myself, had gone on hunting trip. We had spent the day beating for a tiger, which got away, and had re- turned to camp tired and out of sorts. Taking an early dinner, for we were 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 black devil, salaaming at every step and
 
 could understand, We knew, of that our visitor was one of the fakirs, and we calmly waited for him to proceed to business, As he put down his bag with great the boy accompanying him eurled himself up on the ground and seemed to be paying attention to noth- Ing in particular. After 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 aide was as black as Erebus. He wore ! dirty turban and loin cloth, which .wo articles constituted his apparel. The boys outfit was no less elaborate.
 "After tossing the ball of string about Or while-it was about the size of a billiard ball--he threw 1t high into the lir, retaining the free end of the string n his hand. Up and up and up went he ball. growing smaller and smaller he higher it travelled, until 1t disap- ,eared from sight altogether. To all | appearances it had sailed up until it 1 cached the nearest stratum of clouds ind disappeared behind it. It was the | nightiest ball throwing we had ever | cen and was quite sufficient to attract | ur attention to anything that the old | ,oy might subsequently, do-and that | vas just what he wanted.
 'As soon as the ball had disappeared, l he fakir let go the free end of the tring and there we had a line of cot on twine extending from about five eet from the ground up to the Lord new where. When the old man found hat the ball remained up in the air, re- using absolutely to come down, no natter how wildly he gestieulated or ow loudly he yelled a it, he was appa- ently much annoyed.
 "He tugged and tugged at the cord, ut he couldn't pull the ball out of pace and as an edident last resort he alled the boy, told him to climb the ord and bring the ball down. Then re saw the spectacle of a boy twelve r fourteen years old climbing hand yer hand, up line of cotton twine bout the size of a large pin.
 up and up, higher and higher, the rchin went, climbing as sailor climbs
 rope, until he, too, had disappeared shind the clouds which hid the ball. Then last we saw him, he looked to be lst about as big as the ball did when