HINDU WOMEN OF THE HAREM.

Pahiatua Herald, Volume XLI, Issue 12537, 2 January 1934, Page 4

HINDU WOMEN OF THE HAREM.

“The art of the magician is an age-old one,” says Carter the Great, who will appear at the King’s Theatre lor one night oniy on Friday, January otli. “It was practised before the Pharaohs and there is ecery reason to believe that it had attained considerable vogue in the civilisation of the East long before Western man had emerged from his elementary barbarism.

“India and China are reputed to be the birthplaces of mysticism and magic and, in the days of long ago led the practical West in this regard. “In one respect do ancient and modern magic differ; it was the custom in the past to attempt to infuse into the minds of the audience the belief that supernatural agencies were at the root of the most puzzling manifestations; today, while the tricks and illusions are just as confusing and clever, no attempt is made to claim superhuman powers and the illusionist admits that deception is accountable for all the inexplicable things which are made to occur.” This is what Carter does!

“Believe what you likt,” he says, “but we possess no supernatural or preternatural powers.” In a sense he challenges the auditnce to solve the mysteries and apparent miracles which are enacted before their amazed eyes. Continuing on India, Carter says: “Against all advice I played during my visit to Calcutta for six weeks in the native theatre called the ‘Kohinoor’ and in order that tho Indian women should see my show and not be seen, built a ‘purdah' by screening off a gallery for their exclusive use. “Purdah women are Hindus and are members of a seraglio, the master of which btlieves that if the faces of the meml>ers of his harem are looked upon by another man they are polluted ; when walking out they are heavily veiled, so in order to make it possible for them to view my poor wonders, we built the above-mentioned ‘purdah’ behind which they sat and could witness the show without my looking upon their faces.” Carter further added that after exhaustive inquiries into the methods of Indian jugglers, he had not found that he could learn anything new from them : in fact one old Fast Indian Mahatma informed him that at one time the Fast was the cradle of knowledge but now after witnessing Carter’s latter-day miracles declared that the West was teaching the Fast, which Carter considered a subtle compliment.