The Hindus Called It Anjan, And Formed It By
Applying Lamp-Black, Made Of A Certain Root, And Mixed With Oil To The
Palm Of A Footling Child, Male Or Female.
The Greeks used oil poured
into a boy's hand.
Cornelius Agrippa had a crystal mirror, which
material also served the Counts de Saint Germain and Cagliostro. Dr.
Dee's "show-stone" was a bit of cannel coal. The modern Sindians know
the art by the name of Gahno or Vinyano; there, as in Southern Persia,
ink is rubbed upon the seer's thumb-nail. The people of Northern Africa
are considered skilful in this science, and I have a Maghrabi magic
formula for inking the hand of a "boy, a black slave girl, a virgin, or
a pregnant woman," which differs materially from those generally known.
The modern Egyptians call it Zarb al-Mandal, and there is scarcely a
man in Cairo who does not know something about it. In selecting
subjects to hold the ink, they observe the right hand, and reject all
who have not what is called in palmistry the "linea media naturalis"
straight and deeply cut. Even the barbarous Finns look into a glass of
brandy, and the natives of Australia gaze at a kind of shining stone.
Lady Blessington's crystal ball is fresh in the memory of the present
generation, and most men have heard of Electro-Biology and the Cairo
magician. Upon this latter subject, a vexed one, I must venture a few
remarks. In the first account of the magician by Mr. Lane, we have a
fair and dispassionate recital of certain magical, mystical, or
mesmeric phenomena, which "excited considerable curiosity and interest
th[r]oughout the civilised world." As usual in such matters, the
civilised world was wholly ignorant of what was going on at home;
otherwise, in London, Paris, and New York, they might have found dozens
studying the science. But a few years before, Dr. Herklots had
described the same practice in India, filling three goodly pages; but
he called his work "Qanoon-i-Islam," and, consequently, despite its
excellencies, it fell still-born from the press. Lady H. Stanhope
frequently declared "the spell by which the face of an absent person is
thrown upon a mirror to be within the reach of the humblest and most
contemptible of magicians;" but the civilised world did not care to
believe a prophetess. All, however, were aroused by Mr. Lane's
discovery, and determined to decide the question by the ordeal of
reason. Accordingly, in A.D. 1844, Mr. Lane, aided by Lord Nugent and
others, discovered that a "coarse and stupid fraud" had been
perpetrated upon him by Osman Effendi, the Scotchman. In 1845, Sir G.
Wilkinson remarked of this rationalism, "The explanation lately
offered, that Osman Effendi was in collusion with the magician, is
neither fair on him nor satisfactory, as he was not present when those
cases occurred which were made so much of in Europe," and he proposed
"leading questions and accidents" as the word of the riddle.
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