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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
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Untitled Article
this boy . The following instance describes a more difficult c&se : ^ - a Tke next person I called for was a native of Egypt , who has beert , for many years resident in England , where he has adopted our dress ; ' and who had been long confined to his bed by illness before I embarkfcd ibr this country . I thought that his name , one not very uncommon in Egypt /
might make the boy describe him incorrectly ; though another boy , on the former visit of the magician , had described this same person as wear- * ing a European dress , like that in which I last saw him . In the presentcase the boy said , ' Here is a ma * brought on a kind of bier , and wrapped , lip , in a sheet . ' This description would suit , supposing the person in question to be still confined to his bed , or if he be dead . The boy described tii $ face as covered ; and was told to order that it should be uncovered .
This he did , and then said , His face is pale ; and he has mustaches , but n <* beard ; ' Which is correct . "—Vol . I . p . 355 . A note adds that the author heard some months after of the person in question being better , but that he has not ascertained whether at the time mentioned he was confined . to bed or . not . IPhe following was not witnessed by Mr Lane , but reported to him by some of his friends : —
"Oft one of these occasions an Englishman present ridiculed the per- ' formance , and said that nothing would satisfy him but a correct description of the appearance of his own father , of whom , he was sure , no one of the company had any knowledge . The boy , accordingly , having called by name for the person alluded to , described a man in a Frank dress , of course , with his hand placed to his head , wearing spectacles , and with one . ftiot on the ground , and the other raised behind him , as if he were step *
pitlgf ddwn frtfin a seat . The description was exactly true in every respect ; the b ^ cUllar position of the hand was occasioned by an almost constant HfesLa-ache ; arid that of the foot or leg b y a stiff knee , caused by a fall from a horse in hunting . I am assured tnat , on this occasion , the boy accurately described each person and thing that was called for . On another occasion , Shakspeare was described with the most minute correctileis , bdth as to person and dress ; and I might add several other cases
iti Which the same magician has excited astonishment in the sober minds of Englishmen of my acquaintance . A short time since , after performing in the Usual mariner , by rileans of a boy , he prepared the magic mirror , in tne hand of a young English lady , who , on looking into it for a little while , said that she saw a broom sweeping the ground without anybody holding It , and was 60 much frightened that she would look no loncrer . " - ^ . Vol . 1 . t > . 356 .
The experiments sometimes entirely fail , in which case the magician dismisses the boy with an excuse , such as—that he is too old , &c . ^ TChete are three different points in which these extraordinary stories ate to be considered , and without impugning the veray $ &M t " nai > rators * especially when of so careful and matter-> F-fa 6 t 8 . character as the present author : Mir $ t , That the result
Untitled Article
98 Manners and Custom * of the Modern ^ E gyptians *
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Feb. 1, 1837, page 90, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1828/page/43/
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