THIRTY-FIVE YEARS IN THE EAST. 131 



to be even buried, without injuring or endangering his 

 life, provided they would remove or release him from 

 the grave after the expiration of a fixed time, he being 

 in the possession of the means of resuscitating himself 

 again. The maharajah thought it impossible. To convince 

 himself of the truth of the assertion, he ordered the faqueer 

 to be brought to court, and caused him to undergo the 

 experiment, assuring him that no precaution should be 

 omitted to discover whether it was a deception. In, con- 

 sequence, the faqueer, in the presence of the court, placed 

 himself in a complete state of asphyxia, having all the 

 appearance of death. 



In that state he was wrapped in the linen on which 

 he was sitting, the seal of Runjeet Sing was stamped 

 thereon, and it was placed in a chest,^..cji which the maha- 

 rajah put a strong lock, The chest was buried in a garden, 

 outside of the city, belonging to the minister, barley was 

 sown on the ground, and the space enclosed with a wall 

 and surrounded by sentinels. On the fortieth day, which 

 was the time fixed for his exhumation, a great number 

 of the authorities of the durbar, with General Ventura, 

 and several Englishmen from the vicinity, one of them a 

 medical man, went to the enclosure. The chest was brought 

 up and opened, and the faqueer was found in the same 

 position as they had left him, cold and stiff. A friend of 

 mine told me, that had I been present when they en- 

 deavoured to bring him to life, by applying warmth to the 

 head, injecting air into his ears and mouth, and rubbing 

 the whole of his body to promote circulation, &c., I 

 should certainly not have had the slightest doubt of the 

 reality of the performance. The minister. Rajah Dhyan 

 Sing, assured me, that he himself kept this faqueer (whose 

 name was Haridas ) four months under the ground, when 

 he was at Jummoo in the mountains. On the day of his 

 burial, he ordered his beard to be shaved, and at his ex- 

 humation his chin was as smooth as on the day of his in- 

 terment ; thus furnishing a complete proof of the powers 

 of vitality having been suspended during that period. He 

 21 



