JADOO-GARI; OR INDIAN MAGIC.

Press, Volume XLVI, Issue 7442, 16 October 1889, Page 6

JADOO-GARI; OR INDIAN MAGIC.

literally, Jadoo-Gari means in India the art or. practice of magic. Jadoo is magic, Jadobgar U a magician, Jadoogari la the aft of the magician. In its second«y meaning; ifc becomes* in «,he case of the vulgar and ignorant., an apt phrase to express anything which is incomprehensible — oat of the common, strange, inexplicable, anything foreign to usual exgecieo.ee, or which they cannot explain. For instance, I have known cases of ordinary English surgery, where cures have been effected, quite inexplicable to the ordinary intelligence of a Hindoo village, put down at once to Jadoo. The effect of quinine on fever cases was put down at first to Jadoo. The ordinary phenomena illustrated by a magic lantern, a kaleidoscope, a galvanic battery, or many of oar modern scientific toys, are put down in an out-of-the-way Indian tillage to Jadoo. It ia a comprehensive term. It includes i in its higher application, exorcism,' raising of spirits, dabbling in all the' mysteries of the " Black Art," fortune telling, necromancy, divination, astrology, &c, and in its lower sense, it include* besides jugglery, sleight-of-hand tricks, snakecharming, andeven acrobatic feats, and suchlike modes of making a livelihood as are practised by the countless Bohemians of the Kaac Magic is thus firmly believed in by millions in Hindostan, and, indeed' many of the manifestations are very strange. I hare seen things done by wandering Fuqeers, by half-naked juggler?, that to this day perplex and puzzle mc. The basket trick, for instance. 1 have seen this done more than a dozen of timed, and could never understand how i& was done. I saw it once in Bombay, in a paved courtyard of au hotel. At Sonepore,, under the canopy of the Commissioners tent. In Tirhoot, in the compound of the Planters' Club; and more than once in my own Bungalow verandah. It looks so* simple. You are certain it is only a piece - of jugglery, and yet, bow is it don c. You can examine the basket and the, cloth, and the boy, and the Jadoogar himself. All the paraphernalia are very simple. You make up your mind to be very observant; you determine not to be tricked into even a momentary Inattention, and so the manifestation begins. The juggler, generally a Mussulman, .performs the usual fantastic pacings and posturings; the ordinary stereotyped tricks are performed by -way of intro duction: the attendant ear-splitting mm strelsy brattles out its barbaric clangor and the basket is ostentatiously shaken and rapped before you, and is then placed on the selected spot of gronad. And—observe the operator, unlike bis English prototype, has no reserved stage to himself, with a clear background. On the contrary, he is almost surrounded by your gaping, yet observant servants, and by the shrewd and watchful retainers of the factory. So, the boy—a gentle-looking, intelligent lad,: scantily clad—is brought ?*£•!&, on e in . th e wow0i» aifeed to bind his limbs. He Iβ then tied up in a coarse net; andl thus bound, netted, and helpless, he is lifted into the basket, and the lid is put on. A cloth is now thrown over the whole. The juggler, getting more and more excited and voluble, peers down under the cloth. The lid seems to rise and sway about under the cloth; then, with a wild cry end a clash of dissonant sounds from the musicians, the lid Is thrown away, the cloth falls, the basket is stabbed through and through with a sword, or—as I have seen once or twice— the performer runs backward, then, with a yell and sudden leap into the air, cornea down with both feet crashing into the , basket, and th; crowd gasp and Bfgh audibly, as they almost fancy they hear the rupture of the poor cased child's anatomy under that freniied leapt, Mow that's the critical moment! Was the child thrown away -with the lid, hanging to its under surface? I refuse to believe it. The lid was too small, in my opinion, and besides, it the hoy vu these, he op&fti

fcirtje been seen by some of the many watehfol e*es. I hare purposely watched this point of the performance, and I caixaot bring myself to believe that the child to thrown away with the lid. Yet, he is not now Iα the basket. He has mysteriously, but completely, disappeared. Can it be, as some advance, that we, the spectators, are all mesmerised, or under tome magic spell ? Impossible ( I have sipped my peg in the middle of it all, and filled my pipe, and a mesmerised subject could not sorely do that f Is it possible that there is a real black art after all I That, as the devotees of esoteric Buddhism maintain, there are gifted brothers of the inner circles who can cause spirits to assume bodily shape, and that the boy we saw and touched but now, was, after all, only a spirit form—a visible ahape—but yet only a simulacrum. Can't believe it. And yet, how is it done? The mango trick seems equally inexplicable. I have seen—more than once— under the most stringent test conditions I could in common fairness impose—this trick done, and I cannot explain it yet. The dry sapless-looking mango stone is put into the soil, or into a flower pot, or into a hollow gourd buried in the ground, and filled with mould, or into dry dust, on a hard trodden threshing floor, as I once saw it. The Jadoogar is stripped to the waist, his poke, or " medicine bag," filled with his various rude-looking properties," lies handy, no doubt, and the never-fall-ing cloth is spread over the buried seed. The usual business patter, and deafening din from the peripatetic orchestra succeeds. Other tricks are shown—all of them deft, dexterous, wonderful. When the cloth is shaken, the juggler stoops and looks under, sprinkles water, mutters or chants his Mantra or prayer—charm or incantation, whatever it in—and so—the cloth now lies no longer flat. It is perceptibly heightened by some body forcing its way from below. You hear the rustle of leaves as the magician's deft fingers move to and fro under the cloth. You catch a glimpse of greenery. Again the magical operation is repeated, and the cloth now rise* higher and higher from the ground. The Jadoogar (let us use the word) has no apparent material about him* He is naked to the waist. Yet there Is the living plant, and presently, with a triumphant sweep, he whisks the cloth away, while the orchestra performs a demoniac-medley of superlative frenzied din, and there, right there, almost under your nose, is a neat, compact, glossy little shrub, every leaf healthy and green, every twig perfect, and pliant; and marvel of marvels, a golden, firm-fleshed, luscious, ripe fruit, , hanging naturally on one branch, which, if you will, you may pluck and eat. Bow's that done ? I'll be hanged if I know. Ab, now, my eelf-sufficient critic*, you are laughing 1 You poohpooh the whole thing. You think yourself so Tery clever, do you not? and the voor owe mouches of Hindoostan — planter included —are such a simple lot o folk. so. easily gulled and all the rest of it ? Well now, after all, there's not so very much difference between an Indian asserablage and an Australian one in the matter of being deceived by the practiced juggler as perhaps you may think; Oh, nonsense I you exclaim. There's no noueenne about it, as I will quickly show you Did you never hear of the famous basket trick performed by Dr Knaggs, Mr M. Dawson and your humble servant, in Newcastle some years ago ? It illustrates my subject, and, though not strictly part of it, I will Just describe shortly, and with absolute truthfulness, what we did. It was on the occasion of the annual benefit in-aid of the hospital funds, so the good §eaii may possibly have lent us their powerful aid. Well, to be brief. First of all, a committee of three or four gentlemen were selected by the audience to watch the proceedings. With their help, Dr Snaggs spread a clean white calico on the stage, and four nails were driven through it into the wood, pinning it to the floor, and each nail-head was sealed with 'sealing-wax. On this cloth, an oblong basket box was next, after minute ex r ami nation,.placed. It was made of interlaced laths, to imitate basket work, ant was subjected "to close scrutiny by the committee. Mr Dawson was next brought in and manacled with a pair of handcuffs borrowed from the policeman at the door of the theatre. These were locked and sealed. Thus fettered, Mr dawsou was next lifted into an empty safcfe, the committte assisting, and the mouth of th« fcack was firmly tied and also sealed, and all was then lifted bodily into the box Oα the cloth, the lid was closed, locked, and a seal set on the lock. I now spread my magic cloth over the Wfioltf, -and began; my Incantation, the orchestra accompanying with slow music. The lights blazed brightly. The box was riebt in the middle of the stage. Over 1500 pairs of watchful eyes were bent upon mc. )r KnagßS now handed mc a magic sword. Lifting toe cloth, I plunged the sword through and through the basket. Sensation ! 1 Blood (?) was seen to ooze through and stain the white clorli. The doctor and myself now professed to be alarmed. The audience were horror-stricken. Our committee on the stage looked aghast. Throwoff the cloth, I cried in tones of agonised entreaty for a word from Dawson to re>assure us. No response 11 Dragging the box down to the front of the stage, we hurriedly "dndid the fastenings, taking care to show that the seals were intact. There, sure enough, lay the sack and the manacles, the seals unbroken; but where was Dawson ? Giving a shrill prolonged Indian gall, the missing man, much to the relief of the audienc;, appeared in the front seat of the dress circle and bowed his acknowledgements amid thunders of applause. Did they discover how the trick was done? Not one of all that-large audience] 'Bat how did you doit? you aflk. I must refer you to Dr Kaaggs. It was his invention. ' ••■:--■ To show how implicit is the belief the natives of Hindoostan hold in regard to magical gifts, I give a short extract from a very curious and rare book, now, I fancy, almost out of print. It is entitled " Qanoon-e-Islam, or the customs of Islam, translated by Dr Herklots, but written in «11 seriousness aud sobriety by a learned Mohammedan gentleman, Jaffer Shurreef, a native of Ellore. In one chapter, concerning the tribes of Fuqeers, ie says:—"Some among them are also jugglers. For instance, they cut a figure of a man or an animal out of a piece of paper, and make it dance without any visible mechanical means. Again, placing an earthen chafing dish without a bottom to it, on the head, they kindle a fire in it, placing an Iron kurrahee (or pot) on It, cook poorreean (a kind of lentil porridge), and that without their hair being at all. singed by the fire." 1 hare myself seen this trick done, and, of course, most of my readers have seen the sword-swallowing and fire-eating tricks of the ordinary conjuror. . . Some travellers aver that they have seen tie most marvellous feats, such as cutIng a man up and throwing the pieces into the air. At the call of the magician, a land, leg, trunk, head, and so on, are seen far op like specks in the empyrean, and. rapidly descending, they knit themselves together by some wondrous magical epell, until the disjointed victim of the black art stands again connected and whole before the astounded spectators. This would be pucca jadoo (real ujagic). I'm free to confess I've never seen this trick According to .laffer Shurreef, however,' & would »»eem to be not at all an imooseijdlity. Describing the sixth class of Fngeers, i.e., the Rufaee or Goorz-raar, he makes, in perfect good faith, some astounding statements. (The Goore Is their distinguishing badge. It is a sort of Iron club, pointed sharp at one end, and having S £» afc the ocner covefed with sharp »v Th f y r? rij ' inafce '" be says, "from Syed Ahmad Kubeer, whose Fuqeers strike the poineorthe Goorz aaains; their breasts tot Into their eyes, leveFbiows at their backs witn the sword, thrust a spit through their sides or into their eyes, both of which they »ke out and put In again, or cut out their tongues, which, on being replaced in the mouth, reunite. Nay," says Jaffer," they even sever the head from the body, and glue them together again with saliva, and the body becomes reanimated and stands np, end what is strange, no hemorrhage attends all this cutting and slicing; or should there be any it is very trifling, and in that case the operator la considered inexpert." Most strange, indeed, friend Jaffer! Modern European mlracle-mon-gere are as fools to the Eastern Magi, after all. " The wound is healed by the apolicatioa of allittle spittle; for at the time of becoming Faqeers the Moorshud, ie.. (the instructor or spiritual guide) takes a P)f, l °S it to their tongues says: " Wield without apprehension the goorz upon spittle to the wound and it will Quickly heal by the influence of Syed Ahmud Kα-Sfer-j; „" They obey the InJonctffiiclSalagly, says oar author. " Sometimes." he continues, "they sear their tonnes with a red-hot iron, put a living scorpion into their months, makea chain redhot, and pooriog oil over It they draw their hands .along it, when a sadden -«» te P*2?«Med." " I have beard it eald, says the ingenuous Jaffer, "tbafc they even cut s living human betas In spittle., They alee eafc arsenic, ekfes, sad poisons,' ana so on. Now, who fteould wuotttta-Mej^aatfttQQvJfett