Part 19 (1/2)
”I don't say it is not natural, because we don't know what all the natural laws are, but I say that some of the things I have seen certainly are not to be accounted for by anything we do know. It is not often that the jugglers show their best tricks to the whites--they know that, as a rule, we are altogether skeptical; but I have seen at native courts more than once the most astounding things--things absolutely incomprehensible and inexplicable. I don't suppose we are going to see anything of that sort tonight, though Mrs. Hunter said in her note that they had heard from the native servant that this man was a famous one.
”There is a sect of people in India, I don't mean a caste, but a sort of secret society, who, I believe, claim to be able by some sort of influence to suspend altogether the laws of nature. I do not say that I believe them--as a scientific man, it is my duty not to believe them; but I have seen such things done by some of the higher cla.s.s of jugglers, and that under circ.u.mstances that did not seem to admit of the possibility of deception, that I am obliged to suspend my judgment, which, as you may imagine, my dear, is exceedingly annoying to me; but some of them do possess to a considerable extent what the Scotch call second sight, that is to say, the power of foreseeing events in the future. Of that I am morally certain; I have seen proofs of it over and over again. For example, once an old fakir, whom I had cured of a badly ulcerated limb, came up just as I was starting on a shooting expedition.
”'Do not go out today,' he said. 'I foresee evil for you. I saw you last night brought back badly wounded.'
”'But if I don't go your dream will come wrong,' I said.
”He shook his head.
”'You will go in spite of what I say,' he said; 'and you will suffer, and others too;' and he looked at a group of s.h.i.+karis, who were standing together, ready to make a start.
”'How many men are there?' he said.
”'Why, six of course,' I replied.
”'I see only three,' he said, 'and three dull spots. One of those I see is holding his matchlock on his shoulder, another is examining his priming, the third is sitting down by the tire. Those three will come back at the end of the day; the other three will not return alive.'
”I felt rather uncomfortable, but I wasn't, as I said to myself--I was a good deal younger then, my dear--such a fool as to be deterred from what promised to be a good day's sport by such nonsense as this; and I went.
”We were going after a rogue elephant that had been doing a lot of damage among the natives' plantations. We found him, and a savage brute he turned out to be. He moved just as I fired, and though I hit him, it was not on the fatal spot, and he charged right down among us. He caught the very three men the fakir said were doomed, and dashed the life out of them; then he came at me. The bearer had run off with my second gun, and he seized me and flung me up in the air.
”I fell in a tree, but broke three of my ribs and one of my arms; fortunately, though the beast tried to get at me, I was out of his reach, and the tree was too strong for him to knock down. Then another man who was with me came up and killed him, and they got me down and carried me back, and I was weeks before I was about again. That was something more than a coincidence, I think. There were some twenty men out with us, and just the four he had pointed out were hurt, and no others.
”I have seen scores of other cases in which these predictions have come true, especially in cases of disease; though I grant that here the predictions often bring about their own fulfilment. If a native is told by a fakir, or holy man, that he is going to die, he makes no struggle to live. In several cases I have seen natives, whose deaths have been predicted, die, without, as far as my science could tell me, any disease or ailment whatever that should have been fatal to them. They simply sank--died, I should say, from pure fright. But putting aside this cla.s.s, I have seen enough to convince me that some at least among these fanatics do possess the power of second sight.”
”That is very extraordinary, Doctor. Of course I have heard of second sight among certain old people in Scotland, but I did not believe in it.”
”I should not have believed in it if I had not seen the same thing here in India. I naturally have been interested in it, and have read pretty well everything that has been written about second sight among the Highlanders; and some of the incidents are so well authenticated that I scarcely see how they can be denied. Of course, there is no accounting for it, but it is possible that among what we may call primitive people there are certain intuitions or instincts, call them what you like, that have been lost by civilized people.
”The power of scent in a dog is something so vastly beyond anything we can even imagine possible, that though we put it down to instinct, it is really almost inexplicable. Take the case that dogs have been known to be taken by railway journeys of many hundred miles and to have found their way home again on foot. There is clearly the possession of a power which is to us absolutely unaccountable.
”But here comes your uncle; he will think I have been preaching a sermon to you if you look so grave.”
But Major Hannay was too occupied with his own thoughts to notice Isobel.
”Has anything gone wrong, Major?” the Doctor asked, as he saw his face.
”I have just learnt,” the Major said, ”that some more chupaties were brought last night. It is most annoying. I have questioned several of the native officers, and they profess to have no idea whence they came or what is the meaning of them. I wish we could get to the bottom of this thing; it keeps the troops in a ferment. If I could get hold of one of these messengers, I would get out of him all he knew, even if I had to roast him to make him tell.”
”My dear uncle,” Isobel said reprovingly, ”I am sure you don't mean what you say.”
”I don't know,” he said, half laughing; ”I should certainly consider myself perfectly justified in taking uncommonly strong steps to try to get to the bottom of this business. The thing is going on all over India, and it must mean something, and it is all the worse if taken in connection with this absurd idea about the greased cartridges. I grant that it was an act of folly greasing them at all, when we know the idiotic prejudices the natives have; still, it could hardly have been foreseen that this stir would have been made. The issue of the cartridges has been stopped, but when the natives once get an idea into their minds it is next to impossible to disabuse them of it. It is a tiresome business altogether.”
”Tiffin ready, sahib,” Rumzan interrupted, coming out onto the veranda.
”That is right, Rumzan. Now, Isobel, let us think of more pleasant subjects.”
”We are to go into the Hunters' this evening, uncle,” Isobel said, as she sat down. ”There is going to be a famous juggler there. There is a note for you from Mrs. Hunter on the side table.”
”Very well, my dear; some of these fellows are well worth seeing.