THE ROPE TRICK
[To the Editor of THE SPECTATOR.]
SIR,—The following may interest Colonel Elliot. The famous Mahommedan traveller, Ibn Batuta, who was in the service of Sultan Muharnmad,Bin Tughlak, at Delhi, from 1341 to 1347 A.D., had an extraordinary experience with two Indian Yogis. I give it in his own words : " One of them assumed the form of a cube and arose from the earth, and in this cubic shape he occupied a place in the air above our heads . . . His companion then took a sandal belonging to one of thOSe who had come out with him, and struck it on the ground as if he had been angry. The sandal then ascended until it became opposite in situation with the cube. It then struck it upon the neck, and the- cube -descended gradually to the earth, and at last rested in the place which it had left." Ibn Batuta was so scared that he fainted, and had to be brought round with restoratives. This seems to suggest- that he was actually hypnotized in. some way. The phenomenon • wit- nessed by Ibn-Batuta is not, of course, the -" rope-trick,'? but
has many features in common with it. Levitation is a power rttributed to both Buddhist and Christian Saints, and is claimed by the " medium " of today. What is really needed is a bibliography of the subject, which may help us to see how the story arose. Can anyone tell us in what European travel-book the rope trick first appears ?—I am, Sir, &e., H. G. RAWLINSON. 32 Queen's Gate Terrace, S.W.
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