Ram was sitting at his window, beholding before him a vast
multitude and waiting to render to each according to the
amount of work in his cause.
“_Faith opposed to Magic._”—The occult sciences have no doubt found a
congenial soil in India and the far East; but is a belief in them
restricted to the East? or rather, are not these relics of the middle
ages still found to be lurking amongst the most enlightened of Western
nations?
According to “Holwell’s Mythology,” magic and its accompaniments were
first taken to the Indus by the Cuseans, descendants of Cush, the son of
Ham, who is credited with being the first inventor of the black art. He
quotes Eusebius as his authority.
Up to this day on the Indus there is no doubt that many believe in the
power of some specially devout Fakirs to ascend into the air by the aid
of an invisible rope. The laws of gravity forbid, of course, our belief
in the capability of any man so to control and overcome them; but the
wonder is that some of these Fakirs are still able to surprise and
deceive so many, and that the riddle is as yet unsolved.
In China also the power to ascend is not unknown. Conjurors from amongst
the Taoist priests ascend to a height of twenty or thirty feet. Of this
class are those who in Manchuria call down fire from the sky.—Dr.
Denny’s “China Folk-lore.”
The wandering jugglers and conjurors on the Indus and other parts of
India have a singular refrain used as an invocation before exhibiting
their skill. The burden of their song seems to be:
Ya! Allimas! Ya! Kulloowar Pir! Ya! Malim da Bir!