EASTERN " MIRACLES "
[To the Editor of Tai; SPECTATOR.]
Sia,—In The Spectator of September 20th you drew attention to the remarkable feat of a fire-walker, a Kashmiri Mahomedan, who walked in a Carshalton garden over glowing charcoal in a trench : " the trench being swept by a wind that blew the ash off the glowing embers, the surface heat above which
was measured and recorded- as 800° F." And we are told that " no physical explanation emerged."
Of all the strange, wild, mystic things seen in India, the most strange is that of " tumo " (or " tununo " as Dr. Evans- Wentz spells it), or " psychic heat." It is often seen at work in the snows and other bitterly cold places in the Himalayas. Men sit about " stark " naked on the top of rocks or by the shores of frozen lakes. Careful observers from the West have gone thoroughly into this " tummo " business.
'Madame David-Neel is one of them, and she has not only investigated 'the phenomenon but experimented with the methods by which it is produced with such success apparently that she herself was able to pass a night without any clothing or any fire by the shores of a desolate icy wind-swept lake, when it was freezing hard. , The tests that are given to the " competitors " appear to be pretty hard :
" The Neophytes sit on the ground cross-legged and naked. 'Sheets are dipped in the icy. water. .Each' man wraps Iiiinso/f irk one of them and must dry it on his hoffy. As soon as the sheet has become dry it is again dipped in the icy water and placed on the novice's body to be dried as before. The operation goes on in that Way until-day break; Then he who has dried tho largest' number of sheets is acknowledged the winner.". Re is pronounced a' pucea' Yogi. The competition takes place upon " a frosty moonlit night With a hard wind blowing."
Dr. Evans-Wentz gives some details in his Thibetan Yoga and AS'eeret Doctrines.
Perhaps some of the readers of The Spectator can offer a.
" physical explanation."—I am, Sir, yours,. &c:,
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