pages: unmaskingrobert00houdgoog.pdf, 253
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unmaskingrobert00houdgoog.pdf | 253 | THE UNMASKING OF ROBERT-HOUDIN this date, he had used only the ordinary platform and rod. During the course of researches covering many years, during which I visited national libraries in various coun- tries, the first trace of the suspension trick was discovered in the writings of Ian Batuta, who flourished about the thirteenth century. He mentions two conjurers who per- formed before the court of the Mogul in Delhi. One of the men assumed the form of a cube and rose into the air, where he remained suspended. The other man then took off his shoe, struck it against a rock, and it also rose and hung in midair, close to the suspended conjurer or human cube. On being touched on the neck, the cube descended to the ground, and the conjurer resumed his natural form. The historical verity of this tale cannot be determined, and it may be classed with the familiar story which crops up periodically, describing the ball of cord thrown into the air for a youth to climb into the clouds. Once out of sight, the youth is said to draw the cord up after him; then presently a leg falls from the unseen heights, then another, followed by an arm, a rib or two, and so on until the entire body is scattered upon the ground, the head coming last with the neck standing upward. At the command of the magician, the body seems to crawl together, so runs the tale, and eventually the youth stands up to be examined by the astonished populace. These stories belong in the very first of the travellers' tales. In 1356 Sir John Mandeville, called by some au- thorities "the Father of English Prose," after travelling thirty-four years, published a book detailing some of his marvellous "witnessings." Though many of his stories [226] - |