LAST WORDS ON THE ROPE TRICK
[To the. Editor of THE SPECTATOR.]
Sm,—Although correspondence on this subject has ceased in your columns, it is possible that the following may be eon. sidered by you to be of interest to some.
For some weeks there has been staying here a 12-ton Chinese junk, in which Captain Eric de Bischoff and Monsieur Tatiboust have been making investigations concerning matters of interest to geography and navigation, of which Europe will certainly hear more later.
In the course of a conversation on the mind and on thought transference, Captain de Bischoff (of whose veracity there can be little doubt and with whose permission I am writing this) mentioned the Indian Rope Trick, a performance of which he witnessed near Matara, in the South of Ceylon.
He saw the rope go up and remain stationary, and he saw a man climb the rope. He took a photograph, which when developed and printed showed the audience gazing up with open mouths—but shows neither rope nor climber.
Captain de Bischoff describes the performers as men who have (at the expense of their bodies) trained their minds to such an extent that they can compel, by force of will, whole crowds to see what they wish to see. He said also that one of the men placed in his palm a seed, from which in a few seconds, a plant began rapidly to grow.—! am, Sir, &c., (Rev.) G. H. DARER. Thursday Island, Queensland, Austra!ia.
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