Word: subbayah
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Dates: during 1936-1936
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...retired magician I salute a fellow member of the ancient art of magic who performs in India under the name of Subbayah Pullavar and who thoroughly mystified P. T. Plunkett, the tea planter, and Pat Dove, the camera man, as well as the editorial staff of the Illustrated London News...
...Subbayah crawled in between the tent supports, lay down beside a draped stick set up in the ground. At the base of the stick he seated, with much show of tenderness, a malevolent-looking little doll. A helper hung clothtent-walls around Subbayah. Few minutes later the walls were stripped away. There was Subbayah, hanging shelflike to the top of the draped stick...
...show began at about 12:30 p. m. The sun was directly overhead "so that shadows played no part in the performance." In the middle of the compound four poles had been struck up to support a roof of branches. Subbayah traced a circle in water on the sands around this makeshift tent, forbade any man wearing leather shoes to step inside...
...what happened, and I need only mention what steps we took to see that there were no illusions. . . . We . . . photographed every position of the performer and from every angle. . . . I held a long stick, and from outside the circle passed the end of it over and under and around Subbayah's body. . . . I can vouch for the fact that he had no support whatsoever except for resting one hand lightly on top of the cloth-covered stick. He remained horizontal in the air for about four minutes. The tent was then put back. . . . Pat and I could see, through...
Scientists would deny that Subbayah's feat violates any physical or biological principle. Fakirs can induce cataleptic rigidity in a limb or in the whole body; fakirs are often unbelievably strong. When the tent walls close behind him, all that Subbayah conceivably has to do is to induce rigor, leaving one arm free to inch his body little by little up the stick. If the stick is off the vertical and slants away from his log-like body he can hang easily from its top, provided his centre of gravity is directly above the point where the stick enters...