Under this tree once sat a naked fakir who had occupied that situation for 25 years; but he did not continue there the whole year, for his vow obliged him to be during the four cold months up to his neck in the water of the Ganges!

Something told him the other was deliberately lying, and the fluency with which he delivered that remarkable story announced the self-named Jake Storms an accomplished fakir, if ever there was one.

Having formed this resolution, the king advanced in that direction; when he drew near, he saw four erratic fakirs, with kafnis on their bodies, and their head reclined on their knees; sitting in profound silence, and senselessly abstracted.

In these little principalities the peasants have, comparatively speaking, no medical attendance; they are dependent upon ignorant fakirs and sorcerers, and they die off like flies, without even leaving a record of their disappearance.

Even the ignorant fakirs (I use the word in its true sense, not in the sense given it by American slang)even these itinerant showmen of psychic phenomena, are able to produce phenomena of this kind which seems miraculous to those witnessing them.

THE BLACKBIRD You precious fakir!