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The Eleventh Lesson: Hindu Wonder-Working.1343
feat. They will also toss into the air various objects that may be lying around,
and make them float easily in the air, rising and lowering themselves at the
command of the fakir.
The well-known Cocoa-nut feat is another favorite illusion of the traveling
fakirs. It is performed by producing an empty cocoanut shell, which is
passed around for examination. Then from the nut is seen to bubble up
great streams of water, which is poured into a bucket; then into another
vessel or jar; and so on until many gallons of water have been produced
from the shell, and many jars filled. Then he reverses the process and slowly
pours vessel after vessel of water back into the shell, where it disappears,
until finally all the vessels have been emptied and the shell is again passed
around, perfectly empty and as dry as in the first place.
There are many variations and combinations of this class of feats as
performed by these traveling fakirs and others, the variety and interesting
features depending materially upon the ingenuity and power of invention
on the part of the fakir. As a rule, however, these people merely repeat the
feats which have been taught them by their parents or masters, with little
or no variation, change, or improvement, their inventive faculties not been
highly developed seemingly. The majority of the fakirs have served long
apprenticeships with either the fathers or else with some old master fakir
to whom they were apprenticed in early youth. And it is the tendency of
a certain type of Hindu mind to follow an example as closely as may be,
without any attempt at improvement. But here and there are to be found
rather enterprising fakirs who are not satisfied with the mechanical repetition
of the feats as taught them, but who wish to achieve special renown by
performing some new feat, or new variation on some old one. And, when
this desire possesses a fakir there are no limits to the variety of feats that he
produces, which, however, are mainly variations upon and combinations of
the principal feats, such as are mentioned above.
Some of these variations take the form of materializing objects from
the air; producing the forms and shapes of men, women, children and