948 THE GHOST-DANCE RELIGION [eth.ann 14 



APPENDIX— HYPNOTISM AND THE DANCE AMONG THE DERVISHES 



[From Brown's Dervishes] 



Hypnotism. — It is through the performance of the Zikr, by khalvel (pious retire- 

 ment for purposes of deep devotion), by the Tevejjuh (or turning the face or mind 

 devoutly toward God in prayer), by the Murakebeh (or fearful contemplation of 

 God), the Tesarruf (or self-abandonment to pious reflection and inspiration i, and the 

 Tesawuf (or mystical spiritualism), that the fervent Dervish reaches peculiar spirit- 

 ual powers called Kuvvell i roohee batinee (a mystical, internal, spiritual power). The 

 life or biography of every eminent sheikh or peer details innumerable evidences of 

 this power exercised in a strange and peculiar manner. This exercise is called the 

 Kuvveh Iradat, or tho " Power of the Will," and, as a theory, may be traced histori- 

 cally to the Divine Power — the soul of man being connected with the Divine Spirit — 

 from which it emanates, and with which, through the means before mentioned, it 

 commences. Some sheikhs are more celebrated than others for their peculiar and 

 strange powers, and it is to their superiority that their reputation and reverence in 

 the .Mussulman world in general, and among Dervishes in particular, is to be attrib- 

 uted. With the supposition that the details given of them by their biographers, 

 disciples, or successors are not invented, or even exaggerated, their powers are cer- 

 tainly very remarkable. Whilst among them an implicit belief in them is firmly 

 sustained, sultans and princes have evidently doubted them, and, being alarmed 

 with the influence the possessors acquired aud sustained among the public generally, 

 they have often shown a direful exercise of their own arbitrary will and power, 

 which resulted in the untimely end of the unfortunate sheikh. Many, on the other 

 baud, have survived the frequent exercise of their ''spiritual powers," and either 

 because they acquired a power and influence over the minds of their temporal rulers, 

 or whether they used them for their own private purposes, so as to conciliate the 

 more religious or fanatic, they succeeded in reaching advanced ages aud a peaceful 

 end of their remarkable careers. When the ruler of the country has not cared to 

 order the execution of the sheikh who declared himself possessed of these spiritual 

 powers, he has simply exiled him from his capital or his territory, and permitted 

 him freely to exercise his powers and renown in some less objectionable locality. 

 These powers can only be acquired through the long instruction of a superior spirit- 

 ual director, or Murshid, or As-h.ib i Yekeen, for whom the disciples ever retain a 

 most grateful remembrance and attachment. 



Among the practices of these powers is the faculty of foreseeing coming events; 

 of predicting their occurrence; of preserving individuals from the harm ami <\ il 

 which would otherwise certainly result for them; of assuring to one person success 

 over the machinations of another, so that he may freely attack him and prevail over 

 him; of restoring harmony of sentiment between those who would otherwise be 

 relentless enemies; of knowing when others devised harm against themselves, and 

 through certain spells of preserving themselves and causing harm to befall the e\ il 

 minded, and even of causing the death of anyone against whom they wish to pro- 

 ceed. All this is done as well from a distance :is when near. 



In other parts of the world, and among other people, these attainments would 

 have been attributed to sorcery and witchcraft; in modern times tiny would he 

 ascribed to spiritism, or magnetic influences, either of the spirit or of the body; 

 but to the instructed Dervish they all derive their origin in the spirit of the holy 

 sheikh — the special gift of the great Spirit of God, which commences with the spirit 

 of man, from which it directly emanated. The condition or disposition necessary 

 for these effects is called the Hal (state or frame), and is much the same as that 

 required by the magnetized, and the object of his operation. The powers of the 

 body are enfeebled by lasting and menial fatigue in prayer, aud the imagination 

 kept in a fervid state, fully impressed with the conviction that such (lowers are 

 really possessed by the sheikh, and that he can readily exercise them over the 



