i 9 4 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



his left hand on the glowing iron plate, which he also licked with 

 apparent relish, and then stood upon it with his bare feet until it 

 became black. This last exploit filled the air with a faint odor of 

 burned horn. A sword, so sharp that it cut a piece of paper in 

 two when drawn across the edge, was handed to the fakir, who 

 thrust it with all his force against his throat, his breast, and his 

 sides. The sword was then held in a horizontal position about 

 three feet from the ground with the edge upward, by the servant 

 who took hold of the point, which was wrapped in several folds 

 of cloth for the protection of his hand, and by another 'Aissaui, 

 who held it by the hilt. The fakir placed his hands on the shoul- 

 ders of the two men and, leaping up barefoot on the edge of the 

 sword, stood there for some seconds. He then stripped and, rest- 

 ing his naked abdomen on the edge of the sword, balanced himself 

 in the air without touching the floor with his feet, the sheik mean- 

 while pressing down upon the fakir's back with the whole weight 

 of his body. The fakir also thrust a dagger from the inside of his 

 mouth through his cheek, so that the point projected more than 

 an inch. Finally, he took a serpent out of a box, and, after irri- 

 tating it into fierce anger, let it bite various parts of his person ; 

 at last he himself bit off the head of the venomous reptile and 

 devoured nearly half of its body. 



Having thus gorged his barbarous appetite, he resumed his 

 dance in the same rapid measure, in which he had finished it, 

 but the movement became gradually slower, and in due time, 

 after kissing the yellow turban of the sheik, he sat down again, 

 " clothed and in his right mind." 



Another fakir danced himself into a trance and fed upon 

 snakes and scorpions, apparently relishing this limited but piquant 

 bill of fare. In conclusion, the sheik himself performed the most 

 marvelous feat of all : with the point of a dagger he lifted his 

 right eye out of its socket, so that one could see into the cavity, 

 the cornea assuming a dull, glassy appearance so long as the 

 eye rested on the point of the dagger, but no sooner was it 

 replaced and gently rubbed than it became clear again and 

 seemed to be as serviceable as ever. Several medical and sci- 

 entific men examined the fakir thoroughly after the performance 

 was over, and unanimously declared that none of these feats left 

 the slightest trace of a wound on any part of his body, nor did 

 they draw a single drop of blood. They furthermore affirmed 

 that, so far as they could discover, no jugglery or sleight of hand 

 was practiced. 



That these things actually happened is as conclusively estab- 

 lished as the occurrence of any event can be by human and even 

 expert testimony. The literature of the subject is quite volumi- 

 nous and rapidly increasing in extent, corresponding in this respect 



