GENERALITIES, AND OTHER MYTHS.
This little book is written on Indian Conjuring, and with the
exception of a dissertation upon the great Indian Rope Imagination, we
have confined ourselves to tricks that we ourselves have seen, and
which are common to the Indian conjuror. It would however, be
incomplete without touching on one or two other broadcast myths that
are frequently talked about.
Messrs. Maskelyn & Devant used to show a very clever illusion called
the New Page, in which a page boy was tied up in an upright position
in a cabinet just large enough to contain him. The showman then took a
doll--a small model of the page boy--and illustrated that whatever
happened to the doll would happen to the boy in the box. As a
convincing example he turned the doll upside down. Miraculous to
relate, when the cabinet was opened the page boy was found to be
upside down with the original knots and seals intact! This experiment
according to the excellent patter of the showman, was based upon the
prevalent idea that in India certain magicians make a small effigy of
a person on whom some dire calamity is intended, and that whatever is
done to this doll, happens to the unfortunate person at any distance,
but at that identical moment. I am glad to say that I have never seen
or heard of this myth being verified.
On one occasion a medical officer knowing that I was interested in
Magic, told me that he was attending an idiot girl who was covered
with sores and that the common idea in the bazaar was that some
person was working "Jadoo" upon her, using this doll method of doing
so. He kindly allowed me to visit the girl with him, and, being an
ordinary mortal and unused to horrible sights, I was shocked at her
appearance. She had nasty open sores on her cheeks, arms and forehead.
She was certainly an imbecile. Her father was adamant in his belief
that "Jadoo" and nothing else accounted for her state. Her imbecility
was due, we found, to her having had a fall as a baby. In order to
ascertain the cause of the sores the medical officer removed her to
the cantonment (Government) hospital, where after a period they
yielded to treatment and were eventually cured. Evidently the "Jadoo"
had ceased. On her return to her ancestral hut, these sores again
appeared. With the permission of the medical officer and the parents,
I employed a reliable attendant to watch the girl. In three days I
received the following report. The previous evening, when the girl
thought that she was not being watched, the attendant saw her take
something from a hiding place and rub her face with it two or three
times. He watched her replace whatever it was, and later found it. He
gave it to us with his report. It proved to be a piece of nut used by
"Dhobies" or Indian Washermen to mark the clothing committed to their
destruction-care, I should say. On every article of clothing returned
by the "Dhobie" there is in one corner a small brown mark,
corresponding to the stitched mark used by Laundries in England, by
which the owner of the article washed is identified. This nut is
called, I believe, "Areca nut." When applied to the human skin it
causes a sore. The illness from which the poor girl was suffering was
an "inclination to maim or disfigure oneself," commonly found with
imbeciles. (I have touched wood, you medical people, so please don't
abuse me if I am wrong!)
As the parents were not fully convinced that "Jadoo" was not being
worked, we again took the girl to hospital and again was she cured of
the ghastly sores.
This is the only case of such "Jadoo" that has come to my personal
knowledge.
There is another form of "Jadoo" that is believed in by the
inhabitants of the bazaar. A maliciously inclined person has a spite
against another. He makes a small bouquet of tomato leaves, or cabbage
or some such herb, sprinkles it with salt, green powder, and so forth
and so on, and lays this down as close as possible to the door of the
person to whom he wants to bring bad luck for 12 months! It is true
that we had this delightful bouquet thrown into our compound on one
occasion, and that shortly afterwards--
(1) our gardener's wife died in childbirth.
(2) my wife got hay fever.
(3) my agents declined to meet any more of my cheques until
they had received a substantial instalment.
(4) we were again ordered to move to another Station.
I regret to say that of the above, 2, 3 and 4 were of such frequent
occurrence that we did not assign them to the receipt of the bouquet.
The gardener however, was convinced that it caused his wife to die in
childbirth as she had never done so before. I have no explanation for
the "denouement" and give the story as it happened, allowing my
readers to judge for themselves whether or no any credence should be
given to the fable after such convincing proof.
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