The Birmingham age-herald., 1904-12-12
TRICKS OF HINooo FAKiRs.
conjuring Snakes and Monkeys From
 Under a Cloth.


 From the Detroit Tribune.
 Hindoo fakrs, or ''adepts," owing perhaps to their intense love for solitary meditation. seem to have acquired a means of which they cause people to see things that are not visible, and hear sounds that do not exist. Hypnotism Is the only answer to many things that seem to occur in the presence of these remarkable folks of the mystic cult. A ship captain tells the following story of occurrences which he witnessed-or thought he did-although acknowledging afterward that he was deluded:
 "The first time I saw one of those brown fellows do his tricks Ftell you 1t opened my eyes as wide as saueers. We were lying in an East Indian port. sev- eral miles out, when he came swimming through the surf and scrambled up the ships anchor chain as nimble as 8 mon key. He wore no clothing except nar- row cloth around his Joins and had noth- ing else upon him but a red cloth about a yard square. The first thing he did was to pick up from the deck a ball of twine
 
 a sail and you will doubtless not believe it. he unwound the string from the ball 1t went straight up in the air instead of falling to the deck in accordance with the law of gravitaton.
 Going to a nearby chicken coop he pulled forth a half grown fowl which naturally skawked for dear life when he put his hands upon it. Imagine our surprise as he put it down upon the ta if Ja If powerless to move Once or twice 1t fiuttered a little as the fakir looked away, but each time it soon ceased it's strug- gles, and lay as if dead. After a few moments had elapsed, the performer turned his attention to something else, and the bird released from the spell he had over 1t, arose to its feet. and ran away with startled cries. evidencing alarm and astonishment at It's strange experience. He then took from the hand 1 of a sailor a half coeoanut and. holding 1 this aloft, caused twelve buckets of wa 1 ter to flow from it.
 Mind you this fellow came over the rail of the ship dripping wet from his long swim through the surf. He could not have had a confederate or any means of assistance on board because we had just come to anchor after a voy- age of several hundred miles. Everything l he used in his first tricks belonged to the ship or the people on board. An au- l dience of several hundred persons crowd ed close around him and there was no possible chance of deception. The fakir next took a large earthen dish, poured into 1t gallon of water and held t up in his left hand, the other hand being lifted I to his forehead. The vessel began to di- minish in size and shrank until it disap- peared. Suddenly we saw brown object no bigger than grain of sand which grew larger and larger until the dish reappeared and gradually assumed it's 1 original form. filed with water, which l he spilled upon the deck
 His last performance left us so amazed l that l, for one, went into a splitting head ache from thinking about 1t. He held up l for inspection the red cloth which he had brought with him. In order to keep it 1 from getting wet as he swan out he had l to tie 1t to the back of his neck In tight 1 little bundle. He passed 1t along and everybody examined it closely There was, evidently, nothing unusual about 1t. It was just plain piece of goods of coarse | texture. After spreading 1t out flat upon i the deck he walked around it several l times. muttering to himself and turning his eyes upward. Something began to I move beneath the cloth. It grew in size 1 as we looked, and out hopped a monkey, chattering and grinning like a little sav-
 
 1 poked its venomous head from under the edge of the cloth and wriggled out In l plain view. I am deathly afraid of snakes and despise the sight of monkeys, but to save my life I could not move out of my tracks. My feet were riveted to the deck as securely as if they had been l spiked. much larger object began to stir beneath the mysterious red cloth, and a girl about 12 or IA years old arose to her feet and stood smiling there among 1 us. The looks of amazement on the faces 1 of the people in that group is something shall never forget Before anyone could stir the fakr clapped hls hands, then his creatures vanished into air. Quickly 1 folding up his cloth he leaped into the ca and swan away with the graceful, 1 easy stroke of the strong swimmer. Many of us did not sleep that night for ponder 1 ing over the mystery of his performance.
 Yet there can be no doubt about these performances being illusions, because an l attempt to photograph any of them re- veals nothing but an empty plate"