FAKIR'S MAGIC.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXIX, Issue 8173, 5 July 1906, Page 3

FAKIR'S MAGIC.

MARVELLOUS FEATS,

Captain John Gladwin Jebb, of i.-the English Army, died a few years ,ago. He was a muu of groat erudition and of wide experience as a traveller in all parts of the world. A lesidi'iice of several years in ludia •confirmed an original aptitude for mystical studies and led to some atrauge investigations and adventures. As ho was a man of the .highest character, of KEEN POWERS OF OBSERVATION, and of tinimpeaobablo veracity, bis statements are entitled to more than usual httontiou. In speaking of the exploits of the fakirs, one of toe features of EhsS Indiai life, ho said fcnac he had onoe been sitting at mess with a dozen fellow officers when a takir appeared at the door and begged tot contributions. The mess room was about twenty-Bve feet long by fifteen in width, and was lighted by a series -of gas jets ALONG THE CORNICE, in order to avoid 1 the draught created by the punka—a sort of fan fastened to a wide wooden frame, which is kept in constant motion by the punka-wallah, at about a man's height from tne floor. There were twenty of the ga9 jets, and aa the walls of the room were whitewashed they gave abundant light. "We told the fakir," said Captain Jebb, "that if he would give us a good exhibition of hia magic we would contribote to his fund. He showed us two or three tricks; but we were all old hands and had seen the same before; and we de clined to be taxed for them. He grinned and said: '1 will show the sahibs something new.' He lifted his arm and pointed his tJnger at a gas-jet in the oorner of the cornice, after a moment it went out. He pointed at the next one, and IT WAS EXTINGUISHED also; nod at the next and the next. Jn this way he bad soon made the circuit of the room, and there now remained only one «as jet alight. JhJy ; that time, as you may suppose, we had become a good deal interested. The man stopped to rub his bis left arc lightly with his right hand for a few moments; then he pointed at the final gas-jet, and cnt it went, leaving us in total darkBess. " 'Do the Hahibs wish the lights restored' asked the voice of the fakir out of the darkness. We intimated that we did, and immediately the light which had been last extinguished appeared again, and BY ITS ILLUMINATION we saw the fellow in the same attitude aa before, except that this time it was with his right finger, instead of with his left, that he was pointing. To make a short story of it be relighted every burner in reverse order, until the whole twenty were going again. 'Now are the 1 sahibs satisfied?' he asked. "As a matter of fact it was one of the most remarkable feats 1 ever igaw, as far as our ability to account for it scientifically was concerned. But we pretended not to think much ■of it, and demanded something more. He seemed a little annoyed; 'but after standing with his arms folded in front of him and his head bent on his breast for a minute, be looked up, and his eyes' met thoae of every man in the room, one after the other. He then said in a Blow'voice: 'No sahib may leave his chair!' and turned round and walked out of the door. "We laughed, and supposed that he had given us upas too sceptical for his purposes. We resumed our conversation, and in ten minutes had forgotten all about him. Then one of us—General -Gataore, though he wasn't a general then—said that he must be getting back to hia quar ters, and he started to rise from his chair; but after seeming to struggle for a, moment be settled back and his face turned red. 'What the deuce is the matter?' he exclaimed. '1 can't get up!' "Some of us laughed; -but 1 remembered the last words of the fakir and made an effort to stand. I conld not stir from my seat. Lieutenant Cholmondeley, my neigh boor on the left, SAW MY PREDIOAMKNT and tried to get up himself. He was a big, powerful chap, and he pressed his hands down on the edge of the table till it cracked in h's struggle to rise but it was no use. He was pinned to his place, just as Gataora and I were. "At that every man caught the idea, and for several miuutes there was a queer as scene as ever I saw——five and twenty strong youn« fellows striving their best to get up out of their chairs, and everyone of them as helpless as a paralytic The veins started out in their foreheads, and the sweat ran down their faces, and there was plenty of animated language; but all in vain; not one of thorn couid disobey the fakir's command, do what he would. The sensation, as I felt it, was an odd one—something like one's FAILURE TO REMEMBER a name or a word that is on the tip of the tongue, and this was a physical instead of a mental disability. I could not bring power to hear at the right point. By and by we all gave up, and gat there staring at one another, looking foolish enough. The > fakir bad gone; would fhe ever come back? and must we sit there for ever? We were divided between a longing to wring his neck and a wiL lingness'to Rive him nil our next month's pay if he would set us free. "We had sat there a good hall hour before the old rascal's bead ap feared round the door post, and h< asked, in nis whining voice: 'Do th< sahibs desire any other experiment? "No, we had had enough; and bt went away with more plunder in his wallet than he had ever oollectec aj; one time before. All he did wa 1 to say", 'The sahibs may now rise! and we were all on our feet in ai instant; but it was worth the money Of coarse, the thing can be explainei on the theory of hypnotism, whio the patting oat of the lights cannot bat whatever it was, it was impree sive, and gave lis more respect fo fakirs than we had hud up to the itime."