BAFFLED MAGICIANS.

Gisborne Times, Volume LI, Issue 5227, 17 July 1919, Page 6

BAFFLED MAGICIANS.

MYSTERIES OF THE INDIAN ROPE TRICK.

Assembled in solemn conclave recently, the magicians of England, professional and amateur, debated that most vexed of all questions, the Indian rope trick, and, as was only to be expected, failed to come to any agreement on the subject. Some there were who believed that such a trick had never been performed ; others declared that hypnotism was at the root of it; others urged the impossibility of hypnotising a whole audience. For once, in fact, the mystifiers admitted themselves mystified.

The history of the rope trick was traced in most entertaining manner by Mr, S. IV. Clarke, the editor of the Magic Circular, who said it was the most illusive trick in the world, with the peculiarity that nobody who wanted to see it had ever seen it —though this peculiarity was subsequently discounted by the fact that at least two. of the speakers had seen a version of the rope trick performed. Mr. Clarke had traced a reference to it as far back as 1355, when Iby Batuta, an Arab from Tangiers, wrote that he had seen the trick performed at Hang Chau. Batuta wrote:—

“I was entertained by the Emir in his own house in a most splendid manner. At the banquet were present the Khan’s jugglers, the chief of whom took a wooden sphere, in which there were holes, and in these long straps, and threw it up into the air till it went out of sight, while the strap remained in his hand. He then commanded one of his disciples to take hold of and to ascend by bliis strap, which he did until he also went out of sight. His master then called him three times, but no answer came; he then took a knife in his hand, apparently in' anger, laid hold of the strap, and also went quite out of sight. He then threw the hand .of the boy upon the ground, then his foot, then his other hand, then his other foot, then his body, then liis head. He then came down, panting for breath, and his clothes stained with blood. . . . The juggler then took the limbs of the hoy and applied them one to another ; he then stamped upon them, and he stood up complete and erect. I was astonished, and was seized in consequence by a' palpitation at the heart; but they gave me some drink and I recovered. The Judge of tlie Mohammedans was sitting by my side, who swore that there was neither ascent, descent, nor cutting away of limbs, but the whole was mere juggling.” Obviously, Mr. Clarke added, the writer had mixed up 'the rope trick and the decapitation trick which was being performed when the Great Pyramids were being built. Another account of the trick from a German source in 1550 said that “at Madgeburg a certain magical juggler declared that he could get but little money among men, and would therefore go up to Heaven. Whereupon he would throw a cord op in the air, and his little horse would go up it, himself, taking hold of tho horse’s tail, would follow' him ; his wife taking hold of him would follow also, anc] a maid servant would follow her, and so mount up in the air, as it were linked together, the spectators standing in great admiration.” Unfortunately an unbeliever declared that ho had just seen the juggler go into an inn in the street. “Therefore finding themselves deluded, the spectators went away.” The third record quoted by Mr. Clarke was from the memoirs of tho Emperor Jahangier: “They produced a chain 50 cubits in length, and in my presence threw one end of it towards tho sky. where it remained as if fastened to something in the air. A dog was then brought forward, and. being placed at the lower end of the chain, immediately ran up, and, reaching tho other end, disappeared in the air. In the same manner a hog. a panther, a lion, and a tiger w r ere successively sent up the chain, and all disappeared at the upper end. At last_ they took down the chain and put. it into a bag, no one ever discerning in what way the animals were made to vanish into the air in the mysterious manner described.” One of the most interesting contributions to the debate came from Lieutenant F. W. Holmes, V.C., who said that he had seen a version of the trick on two or three occasions. On the last occasion, in 1917, he was able to take a snapshot of the trick, which he produced. This showed the Fakir, with a taut rope or pole and the hoy balanced at tho top of it. Lieutenant Holmes declared emphatically that the boy never disappeared from sight and his own theory w r as that the Fakir substituted for the coil of rope a telescopic bamboo pole. Mr. ■A. Yurif Ali, C.8.E., declared that as a boy of seven he saw the rope trick performed, but never since, and he also saw the conjurer cut his own tongue out, chop it up, and replace it. In the rope trick he is convinced that the hoy disappeared entirely. Major Branson, with 20 years’ service in the Indian Army, said that he had offered a reward of 205 rupees to any native soldier who could give him the name of anybody who could do the trick, but the reward had never been claimed. In all his travels in Persia, India. China, and Arabia he had never. seen a trick done by a native whicli he could not repeat himself. Mr. Chris van Bern narrated some extraordinary feats which had been performed by a Vogi in Liverpool, including bis ability to throw a rope into the air, where it remained absolutely rigid only as long as the Yogi held liis breath, while Captain Leon Berreloy gave an explanation of the trick, which he believed to be absolutely feasible. Lieutenant F. W. Holmes’ photograph has been examined under a powerful glass, and seems. to bear out Mr. Holmes’ explanation. Jt shows the Fakir holding the rope taut in the air with tho boy on the top of it, but under live glass the joints of a collapsible rod can be plainly seen. * i.