MAGIC I HAVE SEEN

Waipawa Mail, Volume XXXVII, Issue 8178, 3 May 1919, Page 4 (Supplement)

MAGIC I HAVE SEEN

Bv THE NAWABZADA NTJSRAT ALT MIRZA OF MURSHIDABAD.

Have you ever been told that, there was no such thing as a Punch and Juriv show?—that a barrel-organ was a thing of your imagination?—that Christmas pudding and mince tpies wero an idle dream 5 If so, you will know how I felt when 'I was informed the other day that the Indian rope trick did not exist, and that as a resil'd of persistent inquiry competent authorities were convinced that the trick had never been done and never would ll>e done. I have seen the rope trick performed many times at my father’s Court, both at Bombay and Murshidabad. It varies in detail, but never shall I forget the first performance I witnessed. In that/ occasion I was very little and I viewed it from behind the shutters of my grandmother’s apartments. The hoy went up the rope, and then—oh. horror! —lie came down in pieces! I clasped my sister round the knees and, terrorstricken, we counted the bits! They were all there, however, and a moment or two after out popped the boty, smiling and whole, from under the conjuror’s cloth.

The hypnotice theory is, I know, the generally acknowledged explanation cf this mystery, blit I have never been able to accept it. A fakir could, doubtless, hypnotise the spectators around him in the onen court, but could hypnotic influence reach all the rooms and verandahs running around the central court, where from behind lattice and shutter a hundred eyes witnessed the performance—women, children, and servants, whose presence could only be suspected by the fakir?

We should doubtless have grov n weary of the old fakirs with their bags of tricks—the rope trick, tho basket trick, the little duck that dived at the word of command (or. rather, at the bidding of a long, dusty hair), had it' not been that the mystery-man invariably offered compensation. The mango trie was always the last —the seed that grew, first into a little plant, then to a small tree, and 'then burst into blossom and lastly liore fruit, which was picked * there and then and handed round . The mangoes were not of the choices variety, perhaps, but who could quarrel with the flavour of a mango that grew under one’s own eyes? I have seen it stated that, in suite of large monetary inducement, no fakir has ever ventured West to perform before a. European audience, and it is argued that these tricks must therefore depend 11 non certain atmospheric conditions. Perhaps. But let it also Ibe remembered that when a fakir crosses the water he loses caste. Doubtless money means ns much to him as to any other man. hut- the fakir still lias other gods.