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vol. title: Miscellaneous Scraps from January 1st 1878 vol. period: 1875-1878 pages in vol.: 153 |
Magic
Magic.—It appears from Churchill's Mount Lebanon, from which we glean these items, that Sheik Bechir has for some years devoted his time, singular as it may appear, to the cultivation of magic, and the stories he relates of his interviews with immaterial beings are novel and startling. At times he will place a jug between the hands of two persons sitting opposite to each other, when, after the recital of certain passages, taken indiscriminately from the Koran and the Psalms of David, it will move spontaneously round, to the astonishment of the holders. A stick at his bidding will proceed unaided from one end of the room to the other. On two earthenware jars being placed in opposite corners of a room, one being empty, the other filled with water, the empty jar will, on the recital of certain passages, move across the room. The jar full of water will rise of itself on the approach of its companion, and empty its contents into it, the latter returning to its place in the same manner that it came. An egg boiling in a saucepan will be seen to spring suddenly out of the water, and be carried to a considerable distance. A double-locked door will unlock itself. There cannot be a doubt that an unseen influence of some kind is called into operation, but of what kind those may conjecture who like to speculate upon such matters. But it is in the serious cases of disease or lunacy that his powers are called into play. Previous to undertaking a cure he shuts himself up in a darkened room, and devotes his time to prayer and fasting. Fifteen and sometimes thirty days are thus passed in seclusion and fasting. At last one of the genii, described by him to be much of the same appearance as human beings, will suddenly come before him and demand his bidding. He then states his position, and requires assistance in the case he is about to undertake. The genius replies at once that his request is granted, and encourages him to proceed. . . . That the Sheik stoutly maintains his intercourse with spiritual agents to be real and effective is unquestionable; and indeed the belief in magic, and in the interposition of an order of unseen creatures in worldly affairs, at the bidding of those who choose to devote themselves earnestly to such intercourse, is universal throughout the entire population. . . . There are priests who affirm that the Psalms of David contain an extensive series of necromantic passages, which, if thoroughly understood and properly treated, would place the world entirely at man's disposal and invest him, through their medium, with miraculous powers.—Religio-Philosophical Journal.
Pot Divination
Statement of Karim Baksh, Kitmutgar in the service of Colonel W. E. Marshall, of the Bengal Staff Corps, Indian army.
In the year 1863, I was " table servant " of Major Shakespeare, Deputy Commissioner at Benares station, from whom five hundred rupees had been stolen. A man, a Hindoo, was brought to him, who was noted for his power of detecting thieves by the " siphale ilm " (or the " pot trick "). This man plastered a little plot of ground near Major Shakespeare's house; in this he sat with a brass pot, such as is ordinarily kept by natives for holding water. He purified the pot by passing it over a little fire which he made, and into which he threw incense. This done, he said a prayer or charm over the pot. He then set the pot down by him on the ground, on which it began to revolve. Ordering it to go and find the thief, it moved off as he blew once on it, and spinning it went for about a mile entirely by itself, a crowd of sight-seers merely following. When it arrived at a certain spot it halted, and went round and round in the space of a cart wheel, when the man told the people to dig at the spot, which they did, exhuming three hundred rupees. The man then took the pot, and, repeating the charm, blew on it, giving the order a second time to find the thief. The pot moved to a field close by, where two hundred rupees more were found. Informant says he saw the whole process himself.—(Signed) W. E. Marshall, Colonel, Simla, May 30th, 1876.
A Thief Detected by Occult Means
Major B., of the Royal Engineers, has given me the following account:—
In the year 1870, at Dalhousie, in the Himalayas, Lieutenant S., his assistant, was robbed of one hundred rupees, and sent for a " Chulah " (a man who professed to find out thieves by the "siphale ilm," or pot trick). This " Chulah " obtained a lotah (or brass pot similar to that described in the previous statement), and poured rice and salt over it. He then took it to the place where the money was supposed to have been before the robbery, and again pouring ghee, rice, and salt over it, repeated some kind of incantation over it, whispering into the lotah. He then asked Lieutenant S. to name one of his servants whom he wished to employ as the medium for moving the lotah.
A Devil is Dead
Sigh, priests;—cry aloud—hang your pulpits with black; |
Spiritualism in India
The Pioneer, a first class daily newspaper, printed at Allahabad, contains in its issue of the 17th of October, an article on Spiritualism, and the following quotation exhibits the stand-point taken by the journal in question:—
“The Spiritualists win converts to an extent which the outside world does not fully realise, but they advance no step further towards establishing any articles of their faith, even the simplest, on a sure foundation. People, on the other hand, who hate the sound of the word Spiritualism and all belonging to it, stick fast just as hopelessly. They go on abusing the objects of their dislike in the same old way, satisfied themselves with the weakest explanations of occurrences, so long as these involve the accusation of imposture against the medium. ‘Trash, nonsense, done by jugglery!’ is still held by the anti-spiritual partisans as a sufficient thing to say of Spiritualism generally, even in these days when cultivated Englishmen by the hundred, commonplace people all over the world by tens of thousands, and some dozen or score of really distinguished men in literature and science are avowed believers in the absolutely supernatural character of spiritualistic phenomena. As we write, the Saturday Review comes in with an article on Spiritualism at the British Association, which might have been sufficient for the knowledge people had on the subject fifteen years ago, but is ludicrously inapplicable now, to the extent even of being stupid, which is a fault one can very rarely urge against the Saturday Review.”
Spiritualists do not believe in the manifestations being “supernatural;” but the phenomena are at present to all appearance so far removed in degree and in kind from those of an ordinary nature as to almost warrant the use of the term. Still the various descriptions of Spiritual phenomena can be correlated; they also develope in obedience to fixed laws belonging perhaps more to another state of existence than to our own.
In another part of the Allahabad article it is said:—
“The supernatural, as we say, is very interesting. The world would be a much more entertaining place than it is if one were once persuaded beyond doubt that invisible intelligences were around us capable of taking part in the drama of life. We have found out most that there can be to know about the earth's surface: its natural laws are not perhaps exhaustively understood, but so much is known of them that we cannot hope for a great and stirring excitement in that department of knowledge. But if the supernatural is found to be a fact, there would be no end to the possibilities of discovery in that direction. No matter if its first manifestations are of a sordid, unromantic character. If it comes to be
Editor's notes