40

They know the ill effect of lying east and west.

the accumulation of wealth and the growth of avarice among all nations.

A curious instance of this cataleptic power is mentioned in a work under the title of The Court and Camp of Runget Singh. I have myself heard of numerous instances of it during my residence in India.

There is more truth in ancient superstitions than we are sometimes inclined to admit. They are foolish and superstitious to us, simply because in these matter-of-fact days we do not understand them. No impartial investigator of truth, with a mind unfettered by modern orthodox ideas, will, on carefully analyzing their nature and origin, seek to deny that there is often to be found, in even the most puerile and ludicrous of them, traces of wisdom such as far transcends what at the present day is looked upon as the greatest elevations of genius.

An idea is very prevalent, indeed universal, among the Hindoos, that it is injurious to sleep with the head towards the rising sun. This has been laughed at, and scornfully pointed out in many works on India, as a piece of ignorant superstition among the Hindoos, and has been classed as such in their own land ever since their civilized conquerors dwelt among them. The late discovery of Reichenbach, however, that sensitives are positively unable to sleep in any position not horizontally coincident with the plane of the magnetic meridian, has a tendency to throw the laugh back upon ourselves for our ignorance: and thus it is with very many of the ancient customs and superstitions which are all to be found in their primitive purity in Hindostan.

The simple action of the hand in making a salaam has a meaning in it to those who can read nature. Until very lately, it was a rare thing to get a native to shake hands, and, even at present, this custom is only conformed to by the lower castes. Occasionally a Europeanized Brahmin does so, but there is no surer test that he has, from the influence of foreign contamination, become estranged from the sacred order. Their objection to the ceremony is, that it occasions a conjunction of emanations which should only flow between those congenial to each other, thus plainly admitting the existence of a subtle fluid flowing from the body by the impulse of the mind, that has a tendency to amalgamate with a similar influence existing in others: and the highest of them shun this as the greatest of moral contaminations. This is the true explanation of contamination by touch.

I may state, as a further argument to prove that contami

Food not eaten that has been gazed at by the stranger. 41

nation is not considered to be caused by simple contact alone, that a Brahmin, though he will not willingly take a letter directly from the hands of a person of inferior caste, does not object to pick it from the ground after the person has laid it down for the purpose. All that they are anxious to avoid is the magnetic emanation which actual contact with the hand would inevitably expose them to: and this has been repeatedly explained to me. At Madras, the primitive habits of the natives have become so corrupted and changed by the influence of Europeans that few of their more refined prejudices are even discernible.

In stating the facts adduced above, I speak exclusively of the natives of the inland district, for I have known Brahmins in Madras even profess ignorance of them, although doubtless at the Presidency we rarely come in contact with the higher orders of their class. There is, however, hardly a Brahmin in the country who does not retire and perform ceremonies after having been in the presence of Europeans: and, as they are, as I have already mentioned, the most stolid and incommunicative people in existence, there has been nothing more misunderstood by our English writers on India than this so called prejudice of caste. It is simply founded upon a profound knowledge of the mysteries of our nature, handed down to them from remote ages, which to the wise of the present day is foolishness and superstition.

Another very curious feeling exists among them, which has also been mixed up with caste prejudice. No native except of the lowest and most degraded class will eat food which has come under the eye-sight of any one not of his own family or class. The "avee," they say, from the eyes is deleterious, and I have known instances, when travelling, of some of my own writers who were employed by me in the cotton districts actually throwing away the food which had thus suffered contamination: and, to prove that this is not strictly a caste prejudice, upon one occasion I may mention that I was myself the innocent cause of communicating some unwelcome "avee" to a quantity of rice, from having chanced to disturb the process of cooking that was going on among some of the people above alluded to in the jungle. The injured owner immediately forgave me, and partook of the rice, "avee" and all. I may mention however that this man, although of a high caste, was peculiarly friendly towards me.

No native of India, even among the lowest of them, will willingly see in the morning what he calls "a bad eye." They are most particular in this respect, and will even go out of their path to avoid such an influence, which they say is of

42

Cure by passes upon the parts.

such a nature in some people as to cause them distress and uneasiness during the rest of the day. A curious antidote to this malign influence is sometimes employed. When a native finds it impossible to avoid the "glances of the wicked,” he, at an early hour in the morning, before his own vis vite has recovered from the torpor of sleep, gazes steadily upon the surface of a looking-glass, which has a supposed power to fortify the system against any uncongenial influx. They are unable to explain this, but it is universally believed in. Who is bold enough to scout it as mere superstition?

What has been stated above fully tends to shew that many of the principles of mesmeric phenomena are acted upon and recognized by the learned, as well as the unlearned, portion of the inhabitants of Hindostan.

I have now to enter into its more practical application as a remedial agent in cases of simple loss of vital power from the anæmia so prevalent among the under-fed population of a tropical climate, as also in cases of disease.

Many of the more acute forms of suffering in India arise from affections of the nervous system. Pains in the limbs are relieved by the process of shampooing, or stroking by the hands of another person: and so universal is this remedy that it is known amongst Europeans as a curative process peculiarly native to the country. That the effects are not due to friction alone is evident from the fact, that the operation, if performed by the person himself, although ever so well done, has not the same influence in removing the pain. This seems to be the most simple and primitive application of the power.

We now come to the more elaborate and scientific employment of mesmerism as a curative agent, although the more enlarged knowledge of its mysteries is confessedly confined to a few, viz. :-the learned pundits and the higher Brahmins, who alone profess knowledge in the occult sciences, and who scrupulously refrain from imparting any of their secrets to those whom they consider beneath them in caste-a discrimination which includes the whole of mankind-all being alike out of the pale of their order.

In cases of acute illness a native doctor is generally called in, who exhibits his drugs in the manner usual amongst his more civilized brethren of the healing art. Should the case become desperate, however, a Brahmin is sent for, who immediately supersedes the doctor, and orders him out of the house, sometimes in a manner not very complimentary or courteous. If the patient is of a very low caste, the pure offspring of Brahma declines to enter, but orders him to be brought out into the pial or verandah, to be seen in front of every native

Ome. They induce trance.

43

house. A curtain is hung up to intercept the uncongenial gaze of the vulgar, and the process of cure begins. A fire is lighted in a clay dish into which is thrown a small portion of gum-benjamin and camphor. The object of this has never been explained to me. The real business on hand now commences. The Brahmin, after having commanded perfect silence, seats himself near the patient, and gazes steadily at him, in such a manner as to give beholders the idea that he is perfectly oblivious to every thing around him but the one object upon which his magnetic glances rest. This initiatory process having lasted for about ten minutes, he moves up close to the patient, steadily gazing at him all the while, and proceeds to make passes with both hands, with the fingers spread out (to which are sometimes attached pieces of leaves), from the face downwards, at intervals repeating the holy and ineffable name Ome,* (pronounced as in the English word Dome), and, I believe, almost invariably succeeds in throwing him into a state of crisis. Occasionally the patient falls sound asleep, and awakes many hours, or even days, afterwards, and finds himself recovered from his disease. As the Brahmin, however, is never called in until the last moment, the patient seems to die as often as he recovers, being, in many instances, poisoned by the powerful remedies which had been previously employed; but it is beyond a doubt that many extraordinary cures are continually performed by this means, and I have had abundant opportunities of satisfying myself that not only the practice of mesmerism, as we call it, is well known among the Hindoos, generally, but that the higher orders of them are possessed of a degree of knowledge of this mysterious power, of a rude kind, it is true, but still far beyond what the most enlightened mesmerists in England can at present pretend to. Many years before Reichenbach's work on Od came out, I was told by a native that, in the dark, he had seen luminous streams of avee (white vapour) flowing from the points of his fingers: and, a few days ago, while conversing with a most excellent old native gentleman, who was with me in Southern India, and whom I have known

* The word Ome is revered among the Hindoos in the same manner as the word Jehovah was among the ancient Jews. It has an Egyptian origin it is said, and comprehends in its meaning the very extreme of purity and wisdom. The word is never uttered out of the pagoda, and even there it is only said with reverence and awe. In some rare instances it has been found engraved on seals, in the interior of a triangle, and so great is its power that the natives assert this to be the identical word which imprisoned the unfortunate genii when fished up by the fisherman, as detailed in the Arabian nights. The secret was known to king Solomon, who possessed a seal regarding which there are many extraordinary things told all over the east.

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Mesmerism cures the scorpion's bile.

for many years, I learnt by accident that in his present state of ill-health he sometimes, when lying looking intently at any particular object, sees a luminous cloud encircling what he is looking upon, and that he is then able to see through material substances, and, in fact, in that state every thing appears to him to be in a state of transparency. He says it is the "life principle" he sees, and that this exists in every thing-in fact a sort of anima mundi. Such ideas, crude as they are, are worth analyzing when the opportunity occurs for hearing their recital.

The natives of India are so accustomed to be laughed at by Europeans for their customs and prejudices that, as has been before hinted, nine out of ten of them will equivocate and deny the existence of these when they are questioned. This is not to be wondered at, when it is recollected that the majority of Europeans speak to them on such subjects in a tone of ridicule and contempt, which habit, so prevalent in India, has alone given them the impression that we are of, in their own phraseology, a "lower caste" than themselves. They are nature's children, possessed of her secrets without fashion. or prejudice, and, although they cannot reason from such physical facts as we are possessed of, yet they can observe and understand effects which with us are as often clouded by a false philosophy as by prejudice and ignorance. A native of India knows that making passes with the hand over his brother's arm, which has just been stung by a scorpion, relieves the pain, and prevents the poison from ascending; and he believes it, simply because it is so. The power he feels to be in his hand as the instrument of his will, and, in his simple mind, there is no denying it.

Now

The effect alluded to is very wonderful. The poison of the scorpion, although its introduction into the system does not often prove fatal, is still a very painful contamination, and its effect in producing severe swelling in any part of the body that may be stung is well marked in every case. it is impossible to explain how magnetic manipulations applied with intent to draw the poison towards the extremity of an arm or a leg, for instance, can have this effect. The fact, however, is undoubted, and I have known cases where the pain has ceased, with a tingling sensation, under a very few passes, made, however, in this case with one hand only, and with the fingers encircling the limb. To touch it would be impossible. The natives say that the power of the hand controls the "anger of the poison." The effect may probably be due to superinduced rigidity preventing the blood on the surface from circulating in its normal direction, and thus the