HUNGER ARTIST.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLII, Issue 12931, 29 July 1905, Page 2 (Supplement)

HUNGER ARTIST.

FASTS SEVEN DAYS FOR TEE GOOD

OF HIS HEALTH. Riccardo Saccho, who calls himself the master of the art of abstinence, has entered on the last week of his twenty-one days' fast in Vienna, .

I saw Saccho (writes a correspondent) through the glass panels in the tiny cabin in which lie has shut himself. We talked through the ventilator.

Fasting is Saccho's relaxation. He often fasts at home for a week at a 1 time, his object being to benefit his health. He overcomes the pangs of hunger by suggesting to himself that he does not feel them. Saccho looks weary, and his voice is weak, but lie appears quite cheerful. He informed me that lie practises these public fastings, 01 which this is his twenty-fifth, not so much to make money as to demonstrate the power the mind has over the body through auto-suggestion, and to make disciples lor the simpler life, in which occasional fasting should find a place, as conducive to health! When Saccho condescends to eat he contents himself with vegetables. Hj passes- his time during his confinement in studying scientific and spiritualist works, and still feels well enough to read for hours at r time.

His cabis contains' the necessary furniture, including a bed, chairs, table, and washing-stand, and a considerable part of the floor space is occupied by the hundred bottles of mineral water which Saccho took in with him, and which, lie uses for washing as well as drinking. The dirty water is .poured back again into the- bottles, as nothing may be taken in or out of the cabin during the three weeks. Saccho. is a small but healthy-lookiu* man, with an ample growth of beard He lost 24], weight in a fortnight, and of this 4£lb went on the second day. His temperature lias also fallen 2deg. below normal, and his pulse as dropped from 81 to to beats a minute.