Furthermore, these persons are
extremely scarce and are indifferent to money; none has been
enticed out of his own country to give exhibitions. When one dies
in a community, his place is never filled--proving that he had no
accomplices who knew any fraudulent secret practices, otherwise
the accomplice would soon step out to take his place. These men
have undoubtedly some extraordinary mode of sending themselves
into a long trance, during which the functions of life are almost
entirely suspended. We can readily believe in their ability to
fast during their periods of burial, as we have already related
authentic instances of fasting for a great length of time, during
which the individual exercised his normal functions.
To the fakir, who neither visibly breathes nor shows circulatory
movements, and who never moves from his place of confinement,
fasting should be comparatively easy, when we consider the number
of men whose minds were actively at work during their fasts, and
who also exercised much physical power.
Harley says that the fakirs begin their performances by taking a
large dose of the powerfully stupefying "bang," thus becoming
narcotized. In this state they are lowered into a cool, quiet
tomb, which still further favors the prolongation of the
artificially induced vital lethargy; in this condition they rest
for from six to eight weeks.
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