SWALLOWING FOR LIVING

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22909, 11 December 1937, Page 12

SWALLOWING FOR LIVING

ODD PERFORMER'S DEATH SCIENTIFIC PHENOMENON [fkosi a special correspondent] LONDON. Nov. 20 Now lying embalmed at Wolverhampton, England, the body of Hadji AH, an Egyptian, wil 1 shortly travel to America on the Queen Mary. It is claimed that £IO,OOO has been offered for his stomach. Hadji Ali, the man who could swallow anvthing-Mvatches, lighted cigarettes, live goldfish, handkerchiefs and petrol—died last week. His daughter, the black-haired, white-skinned Almina Ali —known on the stage as "The Princess"—said this week: "Father died from bronchitis and heart failure. Ho was only 49. "Many doctors saw him and X-rayed him. He was a phenomenon—a man with two stpmachs. The mystery of it 1 cannot explain—nor could he. He could swallow 30 pints of water and a pint of petrol. Then he could eject the water and'put out the gas which he had lighted. "He discovered his great gift by chance. He was seven years old, bathing in the Nile. He swallowed a live fish and a great deal of water. They he would die, but he ejected the fish and /the water. "From 15 years of age he demonstrated his art on the stage. He could not read or write. He knew no English. I was his interpreter, on the stage and off "