MAGIC, ASTROLOGY, AND ALCHEMY.
If we might believe some stories which are commonly related in Egypt, it
would appear that, in modern days, there have been, in this country,
magicians not less skilful than Pharaoh’s “wise men and sorcerers” of
whom we read in the Bible.
The more intelligent of the Muslims distinguish two kinds of magic,
which they term “Er-Roohánee” (_vulgò_, “Rowhánee”) and “Es-Seemiya:”
the former is _spiritual_ magic, which is believed to effect its wonders
by the agency of angels and genii, and by the mysterious virtues of
certain names of God, and other supernatural means: the latter is
_natural_ and _deceptive_ magic; and its chief agents, the less
credulous Muslims believe to be certain perfumes and drugs, which affect
the vision and imagination nearly in the same manner as opium: this
drug, indeed, is supposed by some persons to be employed in the
operations of the latter branch of magic.
“Er-Roohánee,” which is universally considered, among the Egyptians, as
_true_ magic, is of two kinds, “’ilwee” (or high) and “suflee” (or low);
which are also called “rahmánee” (or divine, or, literally, relating to
“the Compassionate,” which is an epithet of God) and “sheytánee” (or
satanic).—The ’ilwee, or rahmánee, is said to be a science founded on
the agency of God, and of his angels, and good genii, and on other
lawful mysteries; to be always employed for good purposes, and only
attained and practised by men of probity, who, by tradition, or from
books, learn the names of those superhuman agents, and invocations which
insure compliance with their desires. The writing of charms for good
purposes belongs to this branch of magic, and to astrology, and to the
science of the mysteries of numbers. The highest attainment in divine
magic consists in the knowledge of the “Ism-el-Aazam.” This is “the most
great name” of God, which is generally believed, by the learned, to be
known to none but prophets and apostles of God. A person acquainted with
it can, it is said, by merely uttering it, raise the dead to life, kill
the living, transport himself instantly wherever he pleases, and perform
any other miracle. Some suppose it to be known to eminent welees.—The
suflee is believed to depend on the agency of the devil, and other evil
genii; and to be used for bad purposes, and by bad men. To this branch
belongs the science called, by the Arabs, “es-sehr;” which is a term
they give only to wicked enchantment.—Those who perform what is called
“darb el-mendel” (of which I propose to relate some examples) profess to
do it by the agency of genii; that is, by the science called
er-roohánee: but there is another opinion on this subject which will be
presently mentioned.—One of the means by which genii are believed to
assist magicians has been explained in the second paragraph of Chapter
X.
“Es-Seemiya” is generally pronounced, by the learned, to be a false
science, and deceptive art, which produces surprising effects by those
natural means which have been above mentioned; and the “darb el-mendel,”
as perfumes are employed in the performance of it, is considered, by
such persons, as pertaining to es-seemiya.
“’Ilm en-Nugoom,” or Astrology, is studied by many persons in Egypt. It
is chiefly employed in casting nativities, in determining fortunate
periods, etc., and very commonly, to divine by what sign of the zodiac a
person is influenced; which is usually done by a calculation founded
upon the numerical values of the letters composing his or her name, and
that of the mother: this is often done in the case of two persons who
contemplate becoming man and wife, with the view of ascertaining whether
they will agree.—The science called “darb er-ramal,” or geomancy, by
which, from certain marks made at random on paper, or on sand (whence,
according to some, its name), the professors pretend to discover past,
passing, and future events, is, I am informed, mainly founded on
astrology.
“El-Keemiya,” or Alchemy, is also studied by many persons in Egypt, and
by some possessed of talents by which they might obtain a better
reputation than this pursuit procures them, and who, in spite of the
derision which they experience from a few men of sounder minds, and the
reproaches of those whom they unintentionally make their dupes,
continue, to old age, their fruitless labours. Considerable knowledge of
chemistry is, however, sometimes acquired in the study of this false
science; and in the present degraded state of physical knowledge in this
country it rather evinces a superior mind when a person gives his
attention to alchemy.
There is, or was,[393] a native of Egypt very highly celebrated for his
performances in the higher kind of that branch of magic called
er-roohánee; the sheykh Isma’eel Aboo-Ru-oos, of the town of Dasook.
Even the more learned and sober of the people of this country relate
most incredible stories of his magical skill; for which some of them
account by asserting his having been married to a “ginneeyeh” (or female
genie); and others, merely by his having “ginn” at his service, whom he
could mentally consult and command, without making use of any such charm
as the lamp of ’Alá-ed-Deen.[394] He is said to have always employed
this supernatural power either for good or innocent purposes; and to
have been much favoured by the present Básha, who, some say, often
consulted him. One of the most sensible of my Muslim friends, in this
place (Cairo), informs me that he once visited Aboo-Ru-oos, at Dasook,
in company with the sheykh El-Emeer, son of the sheykh El-Emeer
El-Kebeer, sheykh of the sect of the Málikees. My friend’s companion
asked their host to show them some proof of his skill in magic; and the
latter complied with the request. “Let coffee be served to us,” said the
sheykh El-Emeer, “in my father’s set of fingáns and zarfs, which are in
Masr.” They waited a few minutes; and then the coffee was brought; and
the sheykh El-Emeer looked at the fingáns and zarfs, and said they were
certainly his father’s. He was next treated with sherbet, in what he
declared himself satisfied were his father’s kullehs. He then wrote a
letter to his father, and, giving it to Aboo-Ru-oos, asked him to
procure an answer to it. The magician took the letter, placed it behind
a cushion of his deewán, and, a few minutes after, removing the cushion,
showed him that this letter was gone, and that another was in its place.
The sheykh El-Emeer took the latter, opened and read it; and found in
it, in a handwriting which, he said, he could have sworn to be that of
his father, a complete answer to what he had written, and an account of
the state of his family which he proved, on his return to Cairo, a few
days after, to be perfectly true.[395]
A curious case of magic fell under the cognizance of the government
during my former visit to this country; and became a subject of general
talk and wonder throughout the metropolis. I shall give the story of
this occurrence precisely as it was related to me by several persons in
Cairo; without curtailing it of any of the exaggerations with which they
embellished it; not only because I am ignorant how far it is true, but
because I would show how great a degree of faith the Egyptians in
general place in magic, or enchantment.
Mustaf′a Ed-Digwee, chief secretary in the Kádee’s court, in this city,
was dismissed from his office, and succeeded by another person of the
name of Mustaf′a, who had been a seyrefee, or money-changer. The former
sent a petition to the Básha, begging to be reinstated; but before he
received an answer, he was attacked by a severe illness, which he
believed to be the effect of enchantment: he persuaded himself that
Mustaf′a the seyrefee had employed a magician to write a spell which
should cause him to die; and therefore sent a second time to the Básha,
charging the new secretary with this crime. The accused was brought
before the Básha; confessed that he had done so; and named the magician
whom he had employed. The latter was arrested; and, not being able to
deny the charge brought against him, was thrown into prison, there to
remain until it should be seen whether or not Ed-Digwee would die. He
was locked up in a small cell; and two soldiers were placed at the door,
that one of them might keep watch while the other slept. Now for the
marvellous part of the story.—At night, after one of the guards had
fallen asleep, the other heard a strange, murmuring noise, and, looking
through a crack of the door of the cell, saw the magician sitting in the
middle of the floor, muttering some words which he (the guard) could not
understand. Presently, the candle which was before him became
extinguished; and, at the same instant, four other candles appeared; one
in each corner of the cell. The magician then rose, and, standing on one
side of the cell, knocked his forehead three times against the wall; and
each time that he did so, the wall opened, and a man appeared to come
forth from it. After the magician had conversed for some minutes with
the three personages whom he thus produced, they disappeared; as did,
also, the four candles; and the candle that was in the midst of the cell
became lighted again, as at first: the magician then resumed his
position on the floor; and all was quiet. Thus the spell that was to
have killed Ed-Digwee was dissolved. Early the next morning, the invalid
felt himself so much better, that he called for a basin and ewer,
performed the ablution, and said his prayers; and from that time he
rapidly recovered. He was restored to his former office; and the
magician was banished from Egypt. Another enchanter (or “sahhár”) was
banished a few days after, for writing a charm which caused a Muslim′eh
girl to be affected with an irresistible love for a Copt Christian.
A few days after my first arrival in this country, my curiosity was
excited on the subject of magic by a circumstance related to me by Mr.
Salt, our Consul-general. Having had reason to believe that one of his
servants was a thief, from the fact of several articles of property
having been stolen from his house, he sent for a celebrated Maghrab′ee
magician, with the view of intimidating them, and causing the guilty one
(if any of them were guilty) to confess his crime. The magician came;
and said that he would cause the exact image of the person who had
committed the thefts to appear to any youth not arrived at the age of
puberty; and desired the master of the house to call in any boy whom he
might choose. As several boys were then employed in a garden adjacent to
the house, one of them was called for this purpose. In the palm of this
boy’s right hand, the magician drew, with a pen, a certain diagram, in
the centre of which he poured a little ink. Into this ink, he desired
the boy steadfastly to look. He then burned some incense, and several
bits of paper inscribed with charms; and at the same time called for
various objects to appear in the ink. The boy declared that he saw all
these objects, and, last of all, the image of the guilty person; he
described his stature, countenance, and dress; said that he knew him;
and directly ran down into the garden, and apprehended one of the
labourers, who, when brought before the master, immediately confessed
that he was the thief.
The above relation made me desirous of witnessing a similar performance
during my first visit to this country; but not being acquainted with the
name of the magician here alluded to, or his place of abode, I was
unable to obtain any tidings of him. I learned, however, soon after my
return to England, that he had become known to later travellers in
Egypt; was residing in Cairo; and that he was called the sheykh
’Abd-El-Kádir El-Maghrab′ee. A few weeks after my second arrival in
Egypt, my neighbour ’Osmán, interpreter of the British consulate,
brought him to me; and I fixed a day for his visiting me, to give me a
proof of the skill for which he is so much famed. He came at the time
appointed, about two hours before noon; but seemed uneasy; frequently
looking up at the sky, through the window; and remarked that the weather
was unpropitious: it was dull and cloudy; and the wind was boisterous.
The experiment was performed with three boys; one after another. With
the first, it was partly successful; but with the others, it completely
failed. The magician said that he could do nothing more that day; and
that he would come in the evening of a subsequent day. He kept his
appointment; and admitted that the time was favourable. While waiting
for my neighbour, before mentioned, to come and witness the
performances, we took pipes and coffee; and the magician chatted with me
on indifferent subjects. He is a fine, tall, and stout man, of a rather
fair complexion, with a dark brown beard; is shabbily dressed; and
generally wears a large green turban, being a descendant of the Prophet.
In his conversation, he is affable and unaffected. He professed to me
that his wonders were effected by the agency of _good_ spirits; but to
others, he has said the reverse: that his magic is satanic.
In preparing for the experiment of the magic mirror of ink, which, like
some other performances of a similar nature, is here termed “darb
el-mendel,” the magician first asked me for a reed-pen and ink, a piece
of paper, and a pair of scissors; and, having cut off a narrow strip of
paper, wrote upon it certain forms of invocation, together with another
charm, by which he professes to accomplish the object of the experiment.
He did not attempt to conceal these; and on my asking him to give me
copies of them, he readily consented, and immediately wrote them for me;
explaining to me, at the same time, that the object he had in view was
accomplished through the influence of the two first words, “Tarshun” and
“Taryooshun,”[396] which, he said, were the names of two genii, his
“familiar spirits.” I compared the copies with the originals; and found
that they exactly agreed. Facsimiles of them are here inserted, with a
translation.
[Illustration: MAGIC INVOCATION AND CHARM.]
“Tarshun! Taryooshun! Come down!
Come down! Be present! Whither are gone
the prince and his troops? Where are El-Ahmar
the prince and his troops? Be present
ye servants of these names!”
“And this is the removal. ‘And we have removed from thee
thy veil; and thy sight to-day
is piercing.’ Correct: correct.”
Having written these, the magician cut off the paper containing the
forms of invocation from that upon which the other charm was written;
and cut the former into six strips. He then explained to me that the
object of the latter charm (which contains part of the 21st verse of the
Soorat Káf, or 50th chapter of the Kur-án) was to open the boy’s eyes in
a supernatural manner; to make his sight pierce into what is to us the
invisible world.
[Illustration: MAGIC SQUARE AND MIRROR OF INK.]
I had prepared, by the magician’s direction, some frankincense and
coriander-seed,[397] and a chafing-dish with some live charcoal in it.
These were now brought into the room, together with the boy who was to
be employed: he had been called in, by my desire, from among some boys
in the street, returning from a manufactory; and was about eight or nine
years of age. In reply to my inquiry respecting the description of
persons who could see in the magic mirror of ink, the magician said that
they were a boy not arrived at puberty, a virgin, a black female slave,
and a pregnant woman. The chafing-dish was placed before him and the
boy; and the latter was placed on a seat. The magician now desired my
servant to put some frankincense and coriander-seed into the
chafing-dish; then taking hold of the boy’s right hand, he drew, in the
palm of it, a magic square,[398] of which a copy is here given. The
figures which it contains are Arabic numerals. In the centre, he poured
a little ink, and desired the boy to look into it, and tell him if he
could see his face reflected in it: the boy replied that he saw his face
clearly. The magician, holding the boy’s hand all the while,[399] told
him to continue looking intently into the ink; and not to raise his
head.
He then took one of the little strips of paper inscribed with the forms
of invocation, and dropped it into the chafing-dish, upon the burning
coals and perfumes, which had already filled the room with their smoke;
and as he did this, he commenced an indistinct muttering of words, which
he continued during the whole process, excepting when he had to ask the
boy a question, or to tell him what he was to say. The piece of paper
containing the words from the Kur-án he placed inside the fore part of
the boy’s tákeeyeh, or scull-cap. He then asked him if he saw anything
in the ink; and was answered, “No:” but about a minute after, the boy,
trembling and seeming much frightened, said, “I see a man sweeping the
ground.” “When he has done sweeping,” said the magician, “tell me.”
Presently the boy said, “He has done.” The magician then again
interrupted his muttering to ask the boy if he knew what a “beyrak” (or
flag) was; and being answered, “Yes,” desired him to say, “Bring a
flag.” The boy did so; and soon said, “He has brought a flag.” “What
colour is it?” asked the magician: the boy replied, “Red.” He was told
to call for another flag; which he did; and soon after he said that he
saw another brought, and that it was black. In like manner, he was told
to call for a third, fourth, fifth, sixth, and seventh; which he
described as being successively brought before him; specifying their
colours, as white, green, black, red, and blue. The magician then asked
him (as he did, also, each time that a new flag was described as being
brought), “How many flags have you now before you?” “Seven,” answered
the boy. While this was going on, the magician put the second and third
of the small strips of paper upon which the forms of invocation were
written, into the chafing-dish; and fresh frankincense and
coriander-seed having been repeatedly added, the fumes became painful to
the eyes. When the boy had described the seven flags as appearing to
him, he was desired to say, “Bring the Sultán’s tent; and pitch it.”
This he did; and in about a minute after, he said, “Some men have
brought the tent; a large green tent: they are pitching it;” and
presently he added, “They have set it up.” “Now,” said the magician,
“order the soldiers to come, and to pitch their camp around the tent of
the Sultán.” The boy did as he was desired; and immediately said, “I see
a great many soldiers, with their tents: they have pitched their tents.”
He was then told to order that the soldiers should be drawn up in ranks;
and, having done so, he presently said, that he saw them thus arranged.
The magician had put the fourth of the little strips of paper into the
chafing-dish; and soon after, he did the same with the fifth. He now
said, “Tell some of the people to bring a bull.” The boy gave the order
required, and said, “I see a bull: it is red: four men are dragging it
along; and three are beating it.” He was told to desire them to kill it,
and cut it up, and to put the meat in saucepans, and cook it. He did as
he was directed; and described these operations as apparently performed
before his eyes. “Tell the soldiers,” said the magician, “to eat it.”
The boy did so; and said, “They are eating it. They have done; and are
washing their hands.” The magician then told him to call for the Sultán;
and the boy, having done this, said, “I see the Sultán riding to his
tent, on a bay horse; and he has, on his head, a high red cap: he has
alighted at his tent, and sat down within it.” “Desire them to bring
coffee to the Sultán,” said the magician, “and to form the court.” These
orders were given by the boy; and he said that he saw them performed.
The magician had put the last of the six little strips of paper into the
chafing-dish. In his mutterings I distinguished nothing but the words of
the written invocation, frequently repeated, excepting on two or three
occasions, when I heard him say, “If they demand information, inform
them; and be ye veracious.” But much that he repeated was inaudible, and
as I did not ask him to teach me his art, I do not pretend to assert
that I am fully acquainted with his invocations.
He now addressed himself to me; and asked me if I wished the boy to see
any person who was absent or dead. I named Lord Nelson, of whom the boy
had evidently never heard; for it was with much difficulty that he
pronounced the name, after several trials. The magician desired the boy
to say to the Sultán—“My master salutes thee, and desires thee to bring
Lord Nelson: bring him before my eyes, that I may see him, speedily.”
The boy then said so; and almost immediately added, “A messenger is
gone, and has returned, and brought a man, dressed in a black[400] suit
of European clothes: the man has lost his left arm.” He then paused for
a moment or two; and, looking more intently, and more closely, into the
ink, said, “No, he has not lost his left arm; but it is placed to his
breast.” This correction made his description more striking than it had
been without it: since Lord Nelson generally had his empty sleeve
attached to the breast of his coat: but it was the _right_ arm that he
had lost. Without saying that I suspected the boy had made a mistake, I
asked the magician whether the objects appeared in the ink as if
actually before the eyes, or as if in a glass, which makes the right
appear left. He answered, that they appeared as in a mirror. This
rendered the boy’s description faultless.[401]
The next person I called for was a native of Egypt, who has been for
many years resident in England, where he has adopted our dress; and who
had been long confined to his bed by illness before I embarked for this
country: I thought that his name, one not very uncommon in Egypt, might
make the boy describe him incorrectly; though another boy, on the former
visit of the magician, had described this same person as wearing a
European dress, like that in which I last saw him. In the present case
the boy said, “Here is a man brought on a kind of bier, and wrapped up
in a sheet.” This description would suit, supposing the person in
question to be still confined to his bed, or if he be dead.[402] The boy
described his face as covered; and was told to order that it should be
uncovered. This he did; and then said, “His face is pale; and he has
mustaches, but no beard:” which is correct.
Several other persons were successively called for; but the boy’s
descriptions of them were imperfect, though not altogether incorrect. He
represented each object as appearing less distinct than the preceding
one; as if his sight were gradually becoming dim: he was a minute, or
more, before he could give any account of the persons he professed to
see towards the close of the performance; and the magician said it was
useless to proceed with him. Another boy was then brought in; and the
magic square, etc., made in his hand; but he could see nothing. The
magician said he was too old.
Though completely puzzled, I was somewhat disappointed with his
performances, for they fell short of what he had accomplished, in many
instances, in presence of certain of my friends and countrymen. On one
of these occasions, an Englishman present ridiculed the performance, and
said that nothing would satisfy him but a correct description of the
appearance of his own father, of whom, he was sure, no one of the
company had any knowledge. The boy, accordingly, having called by name
for the person alluded to, described a man in a Frank dress, with his
hand placed to his head, wearing spectacles, and with one foot on the
ground, and the other raised behind him, as if he were stepping down
from a seat. The description was exactly true in every respect: the
peculiar position of the hand was occasioned by an almost constant
headache; and that of the foot or leg, by a stiff knee, caused by a fall
from a horse, in hunting. I am assured that, on this occasion, the boy
accurately described each person and thing that was called for. On
another occasion, Shakspeare was described with the most minute
correctness, both as to person and dress; and I might add several other
cases in which the same magician has excited astonishment in the sober
minds of Englishmen of my acquaintance. A short time since, after
performing in the usual manner, by means of a boy, he prepared the magic
mirror in the hand of a young English lady, who, on looking into it for
a little while, said that she saw a broom sweeping the ground without
anybody holding it, and was so much frightened that she would look no
longer.
I have stated these facts partly from my own experience, and partly as
they came to my knowledge on the authority of respectable persons. The
reader may be tempted to think, that, in each instance, the boy saw
images produced by some reflection in the ink; but this was evidently
not the case; or that he was a confederate, or guided by leading
questions. That there was no collusion, I satisfactorily ascertained, by
selecting the boy who performed the part above described in my presence
from a number of others passing by in the street, and by his rejecting a
present which I afterwards offered him with the view of inducing him to
confess that he did not really see what he had professed to have seen. I
tried the veracity of another boy on a subsequent occasion in the same
manner; and the result was the same. The experiment often entirely
fails; but when the boy employed is right in one case, he generally is
so in all: when he gives, at first, an account altogether wrong, the
magician usually dismisses him at once, saying that he is too old. The
perfumes, or excited imagination, or fear, may be supposed to affect the
vision of the boy who describes objects as appearing to him in the ink;
but, if so, why does he see exactly what is required, and objects of
which he can have had no previous particular notion? Neither I nor
others have been able to discover any clue by which to penetrate the
mystery; and if the reader be alike unable to give the solution, I hope
that he will not allow the above account to induce in his mind any
degree of scepticism with respect to other portions of this work.[403]
-----
Footnote 393:
I was informed that he had died during my second visit to Egypt.
Footnote 394:
I must be excused for deviating from our old and erroneous mode of
writing the name of the master of the “wonderful lamp.” It is vulgarly
pronounced ’Aláy-ed-Deen.
Footnote 395:
Of a more famous magician, the sheykh Ahmad Sádoomeh, who flourished
in Egypt in the latter half of the last century, an account is given
in my translation of “The Thousand and One Nights,” chap. i., note 15.
Footnote 396:
Or, “Tarsh” and “Taryoosh;” the final “un” being the inflexion which
denotes the nominative case.
Footnote 397:
He generally requires some benzoin to be added to these.
Footnote 398:
The numbers in this magic square, in our own ordinary characters, are
as follows:—
┌───┬───┬───┐
│ 4 │ 9 │ 2 │
├───┼───┼───┤
│ 3 │ 5 │ 7 │
├───┼───┼───┤
│ 8 │ 1 │ 6 │
└───┴───┴───┘
It will be seen that the horizontal, vertical, and diagonal rows give,
each, the same sum, namely, 15.
Footnote 399:
This reminds us of animal magnetism.
Footnote 400:
Dark blue is called by the modern Egyptians “eswed,” which properly
signifies _black_, and is therefore so translated here.
Footnote 401:
Whenever I desired the boy to call for any person to appear, I paid
particular attention both to the magician and to ’Osmán. The latter
gave no direction either by word or sign; and indeed he was generally
unacquainted with the personal appearance of the individual called
for. I took care that he had no previous communication with the boys;
and have seen the experiment fail when he _could_ have given
directions to them, or to the magician. In short, it would be
difficult to conceive any precaution which I did not take. It is
important to add, that the dialect of the magician was more
intelligible to me than to the boy. When _I_ understood him perfectly
at once, he was sometimes obliged to vary his words to make the _boy_
comprehend what he said.
Footnote 402:
A few months after this was written, I had the pleasure of hearing
that the person here alluded to was in better health. Whether he was
confined to his bed at the time when this experiment was performed, I
have not been able to ascertain.
Footnote 403:
I have been gratified by finding that this hope has been realized. I
wish I could add that the phenomena were now explained. In No. 117 of
the “Quarterly Review,” pp. 202 and 203, it has been suggested that
the performances were effected by means of pictures and a concave
mirror; and that the images of the former were reflected from the
surface of the mirror, and received on a cloud of smoke under the eyes
of the boy. This, however, I cannot admit; because such means could
not have been employed without my perceiving them; nor would the
images be _reversed_ (unless the pictures were so) by being reflected
from the surface of a mirror, and received upon a _second surface_;
for the boy was looking _down_ upon the palm of his hand, so that an
image could not be formed upon the smoke (which was copious but not
dense) between his eye and the supposed mirror. The grand difficulty
of the case is the exhibition of “the correct appearance of private
individuals unknown to fame,” as remarked in the “Quarterly Review,”
in which a curious note, presenting “some new features of difficulty,”
is appended. With the most remarkable of the facts there related I was
acquainted; but I was not bold enough to insert them. I may now,
however, here mention them. Two travellers (one of them, M. Léon
Delaborde; the other, an Englishman), both instructed by the magician
’Abd-el-Kádir, are stated to have succeeded in performing similar
feats. Who this Englishman was, I have not been able to learn: he
positively denied all collusion, and asserted that he did nothing but
repeat the forms taught him by the magician.
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