Observations placeholder

To demonstrate another mysterious faculty which he possessed, Tahra Bey permitted a large sharp knife to be stuck into his chest and then withdrawn. The wound was bloodless.

A doctor expressed a wish to see the blood flow to assure himself that the fakir had really been wounded. Immediately the latter caused the red fluid to stream out until it inundated his chest – a rather ghastly sight. When the doctor was satisfied, the Egyptian stopped all flow of blood by mere will power – an achievement which more than astonished some of those present. Ten minutes later the wound had practically healed.

One of the assistants produced a flaming torch and passed it along the entire length of the fakir’s left leg as high as the middle of his thigh. We heard the skin and flesh crackle slightly in the heat, yet his face remained serene, unmoved, entirely undisturbed.

Another doctor, still unconvinced, believing that Tahra Bey had secretly taken some powerful drug, tested the man’s heart-beats whilst the flame was being applied. They did not register the slightest change; had he suffered any pain and masked it, or even mastered it by a phenomenally strong will, the heart would of course have vastly accelerated its beats, his face would have turned pale, and other signs would have presented evidence of his secret suffering. Moreover, had he taken a drug like caffeine his breathing would no longer have remained normal, which was certainly the case with him now.

Other experiments included the sticking of long arrows through the flesh just above his heart, and right through his arms till they came out at the opposite side.