Indian rope trick
Encyclopedia
The Indian rope trick is stage magic said to have been performed in and around India
during the 19th century. Sometimes described as "the world’s greatest illusion", it reputedly involved a magician, a length of rope
, and one or more boy assistants.
The trick almost certainly originates as a hoax
, perpetrated in 1890 by John Elbert Wilkie
of the Chicago Tribune newspaper. There are no known references to the trick predating 1890, and later stage magic performances of the trick were inspired by Wilkie's account.
(1254–1324), a Venetian
trader and explorer who gained fame for his Asiatic travels, witnessed the rope trick in India and China; see "explanation" below for further information.
Ibn Batuta, when recounting his travels through Hangzhou
, China
in 1346, describes a trick broadly similar to the Indian rope trick.
Pu Songling
records a version in Strange Stories from a Chinese Studio
(1740) which he claims to have witnessed personally. In his account, a request by a mandarin that a wandering magician produce a peach in the dead of winter results in the trick's performance, on the pretence of getting a peach from the Gardens of Heaven. The magician's son climbs the rope, vanishes from sight, and then (supposedly) tosses down a peach, before being "caught by the Garden's guards" and "killed", with his dismembered body falling from above in the traditional manner. (Interestingly enough, in this version the magician himself never climbs the rope) After placing the parts in a basket, the magician gives the mandarin the peach and requests payment. As soon as he is paid, his son emerges alive from the basket. Songling claims the trick was a favorite of the White Lotus Society
and that the magician must have learnt it from them, though he gives no indication where (or how) he learnt this.
It is said that similar tricks were performed during the Mughal Empire
(16th-19th centuries). They reputedly occurred in the Indian subcontinent
from Peshawar
to Dhaka
, and at important centers of Mughal powers, including Murshidabad
, Patna
, Agra
, and Delhi
. During the British Raj
, the trick was allegedly witnessed around 1850 and 1900. The Chicago Tribune, in 1890, published an article about the trick, written by a journalist using the false name of Fred S. Ellmore. 'Elmore's' story was repeated in several other newspapers without its authenticity first being verified.
, convinced the trick did not exist, offered hundred guinea
s to anyone who could perform it. A man named Karachi, also spelt Kirachi (real name Arthur Claud Darby), a British
performer based in Plymouth
, endeavoured to perform the trick with his son, Kyder, on 7 January 1935 on a field in Wheathampstead, north of Hatfield
in Hertfordshire
, after being granted four days to prepare the site. The presentation was filmed by Gaumont British Films.
His son could climb the rope but did not disappear, and Karachi was not paid.
In 1935, Karachi sent a challenge to the sceptics, for 200 guineas to be deposited with a neutral party who would decide if the rope trick was performed satisfactorily. His terms were that the rope shall rise up through his hands while in a sitting posture, to a height of ten feet, his son Kyder would then climb the rope and remain at the top for a minimum of 30 seconds and be photographed. The rope shall be an ordinary rope supplied by a well known manufacturer and shall be examined. The place could be any open area chosen by the neutral party and agreed to by the conjurers and the spectators could be anywhere in front of the carpet Karachi would be seated on. However the conjurers refused to accept Karachi's challenge.
In 1996, Nature
published "Unraveling the Indian rope trick", by Richard Wiseman
and Peter Lamont
.
Wiseman found at least 50 eyewitness accounts of the trick performed during late late 19th/early 20th centuries, and variations included:
Accounts collected by Wiseman did not have any single account describing severing of the limbs of the magician's assistant. Perhaps more important, he found the more spectacular accounts were only given when the incident lay decades in the past. It is conceivable that in the witnesses' memory the rope trick merged with the basket trick
.
Citing their work, historian Mike Dash
wrote in 2000:
However, in his book on the topic, Peter Lamont
exposed the trick as a hoax created by John Elbert Wilkie
while working at Chicago Tribune
. Under the name "Fred S. Ellmore" ("Fred Sell More") Wilkie wrote of the trick in 1890, gaining the Tribune wide publicity. About four months later, the Tribune printed a retraction and proclaimed the story a hoax. However, the retraction received little attention, and in the following years many claimed to remember having seen the trick as far back as the 1850s. None of these stories proved credible, but with every repetition the story became more ingrained.
Lamont also notes that no mention appears before the 1890 article. Marco Polo's supposed viewing was only offered after the article was published. Ibn Batuta did report a magic trick with a chain, not a rope, and the trick he describes is different from the "classic" Indian rope trick.
Penn and Teller followed Lamont's work and examined the trick while filming their three-part CBC
mini-series, Penn & Teller's Magic and Mystery Tour. The tour travelled the world investigating historical tricks, and while in India they travelled to Agra
where they recreated the trick.
Penn and Teller invited two British tourists shopping nearby to see what they claimed was a fakir
performing the trick. As they walked back, an assistant ran up and claimed the fakir was in the midst of the trick, so they rushed the rest of the way so they wouldn't miss it. As the witnesses neared the room they dropped a thick rope from a balcony. The witnesses saw what they thought was the end of the trick, the rope falling as if it had been in mid-air seconds before. A sheet was then removed from a boy with fake blood at his neck and shoulders, hinting that his limbs and head had been reattached to his torso. According to their account, the rumour that a British couple had witnessed the trick was heard a few weeks later in England.
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
during the 19th century. Sometimes described as "the world’s greatest illusion", it reputedly involved a magician, a length of rope
Rope
A rope is a length of fibres, twisted or braided together to improve strength for pulling and connecting. It has tensile strength but is too flexible to provide compressive strength...
, and one or more boy assistants.
The trick almost certainly originates as a hoax
Hoax
A hoax is a deliberately fabricated falsehood made to masquerade as truth. It is distinguishable from errors in observation or judgment, or rumors, urban legends, pseudosciences or April Fools' Day events that are passed along in good faith by believers or as jokes.-Definition:The British...
, perpetrated in 1890 by John Elbert Wilkie
John Elbert Wilkie
John Elbert Wilkie was an American journalist and head of the United States Secret Service from 1898 to 1911.-Journalist:...
of the Chicago Tribune newspaper. There are no known references to the trick predating 1890, and later stage magic performances of the trick were inspired by Wilkie's account.
The trick
Although diverse accounts of the trick have appeared in print since the original was published in 1890, it remains essentially the same. There are three basic variants, which differ in the degree of theatricality displayed by the magician and his helper. Here they are.- In the simplest version, the magician would hurl a rope into the air. The rope would stand erect, with no external support. His boy assistant, Jamoora, would climb the rope and then descend.
- A more elaborate version would find the magician (or his assistant) disappearing after reaching the top of the rope, then reappearing at ground level.
- The "classic" version, however, was much more detailed: the rope would seem to rise high into the skies, disappearing from view. The boy would climb the rope and be lost to view. The magician would call back his boy assistant, and, on getting no response, become furious. The magician then armed himself with a knifeKnifeA knife is a cutting tool with an exposed cutting edge or blade, hand-held or otherwise, with or without a handle. Knives were used at least two-and-a-half million years ago, as evidenced by the Oldowan tools...
or swordSwordA sword is a bladed weapon used primarily for cutting or thrusting. The precise definition of the term varies with the historical epoch or the geographical region under consideration...
and climbed the rope, vanishing too. An argument would be heard, and then limbs would start falling, presumably cut from the assistant by the magician. When all the parts of the body, including the torso, landed on the ground, the magician would climb down the rope. He would collect the limbs and put them in a basket, or collect the limbs in one place and cover them with a cape or blanket. Soon the boy would appear, restored.
The accounts
It is commonly (though erroneously) believed that Marco PoloMarco Polo
Marco Polo was a Venetian merchant traveler from the Venetian Republic whose travels are recorded in Il Milione, a book which did much to introduce Europeans to Central Asia and China. He learned about trading whilst his father and uncle, Niccolò and Maffeo, travelled through Asia and apparently...
(1254–1324), a Venetian
Venice
Venice is a city in northern Italy which is renowned for the beauty of its setting, its architecture and its artworks. It is the capital of the Veneto region...
trader and explorer who gained fame for his Asiatic travels, witnessed the rope trick in India and China; see "explanation" below for further information.
Ibn Batuta, when recounting his travels through Hangzhou
Hangzhou
Hangzhou , formerly transliterated as Hangchow, is the capital and largest city of Zhejiang Province in Eastern China. Governed as a sub-provincial city, and as of 2010, its entire administrative division or prefecture had a registered population of 8.7 million people...
, China
China
Chinese civilization may refer to:* China for more general discussion of the country.* Chinese culture* Greater China, the transnational community of ethnic Chinese.* History of China* Sinosphere, the area historically affected by Chinese culture...
in 1346, describes a trick broadly similar to the Indian rope trick.
Pu Songling
Pu Songling
Pu Songling was a Qing Dynasty Chinese writer, best known as the author of Strange Stories from a Chinese Studio.-Biography:Pu was born into a poor landlord-merchant family from Zichuan...
records a version in Strange Stories from a Chinese Studio
Strange Stories from a Chinese Studio
Strange Stories from a Chinese Studio or Liaozhai Zhiyi is a collection of nearly five hundred mostly supernatural tales written by Pu Songling in Classical Chinese during the early Qing Dynasty.Pu borrows from a folk tradition of oral storytelling to put to paper a series of captivating,...
(1740) which he claims to have witnessed personally. In his account, a request by a mandarin that a wandering magician produce a peach in the dead of winter results in the trick's performance, on the pretence of getting a peach from the Gardens of Heaven. The magician's son climbs the rope, vanishes from sight, and then (supposedly) tosses down a peach, before being "caught by the Garden's guards" and "killed", with his dismembered body falling from above in the traditional manner. (Interestingly enough, in this version the magician himself never climbs the rope) After placing the parts in a basket, the magician gives the mandarin the peach and requests payment. As soon as he is paid, his son emerges alive from the basket. Songling claims the trick was a favorite of the White Lotus Society
White Lotus Society
The White Lotus Society primarily refers to White Lotus, originally a Buddhist sect, later a secret society.Fictional organizations very loosely based on the historical organization include:...
and that the magician must have learnt it from them, though he gives no indication where (or how) he learnt this.
It is said that similar tricks were performed during the Mughal Empire
Mughal Empire
The Mughal Empire , or Mogul Empire in traditional English usage, was an imperial power from the Indian Subcontinent. The Mughal emperors were descendants of the Timurids...
(16th-19th centuries). They reputedly occurred in the Indian subcontinent
Indian subcontinent
The Indian subcontinent, also Indian Subcontinent, Indo-Pak Subcontinent or South Asian Subcontinent is a region of the Asian continent on the Indian tectonic plate from the Hindu Kush or Hindu Koh, Himalayas and including the Kuen Lun and Karakoram ranges, forming a land mass which extends...
from Peshawar
Peshawar
Peshawar is the capital of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa and the administrative center and central economic hub for the Federally Administered Tribal Areas of Pakistan....
to Dhaka
Dhaka
Dhaka is the capital of Bangladesh and the principal city of Dhaka Division. Dhaka is a megacity and one of the major cities of South Asia. Located on the banks of the Buriganga River, Dhaka, along with its metropolitan area, had a population of over 15 million in 2010, making it the largest city...
, and at important centers of Mughal powers, including Murshidabad
Murshidabad
Murshidabad is a city in Murshidabad district of West Bengal state in India. The city of Murshidabad is located on the southern bank of the Bhagirathi, a distributary of the Ganges River. It was the capital of undivided Bengal during the Mughal rule. Nawabs of Bengal used to rule Bengal from this...
, Patna
Patna
Paṭnā , is the capital of the Indian state of Bihar and the second largest city in Eastern India . Patna is one of the oldest continuously inhabited places in the world...
, Agra
Agra
Agra a.k.a. Akbarabad is a city on the banks of the river Yamuna in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh, India, west of state capital, Lucknow and south from national capital New Delhi. With a population of 1,686,976 , it is one of the most populous cities in Uttar Pradesh and the 19th most...
, and Delhi
Delhi
Delhi , officially National Capital Territory of Delhi , is the largest metropolis by area and the second-largest by population in India, next to Mumbai. It is the eighth largest metropolis in the world by population with 16,753,265 inhabitants in the Territory at the 2011 Census...
. During the British Raj
British Raj
British Raj was the British rule in the Indian subcontinent between 1858 and 1947; The term can also refer to the period of dominion...
, the trick was allegedly witnessed around 1850 and 1900. The Chicago Tribune, in 1890, published an article about the trick, written by a journalist using the false name of Fred S. Ellmore. 'Elmore's' story was repeated in several other newspapers without its authenticity first being verified.
Skepticism
There had long been scepticism regarding the trick. Once The Magic CircleThe Magic Circle
The Magic Circle is a British organisation, founded in London in 1905, dedicated to promoting and advancing the art of magic.- History :The Magic Circle was founded in 1905 after a meeting of 23 amateur and professional magicians at London's Pinoli's Restaurant...
, convinced the trick did not exist, offered hundred guinea
Guinea (British coin)
The guinea is a coin that was minted in the Kingdom of England and later in the Kingdom of Great Britain and the United Kingdom between 1663 and 1813...
s to anyone who could perform it. A man named Karachi, also spelt Kirachi (real name Arthur Claud Darby), a British
Great Britain
Great Britain or Britain is an island situated to the northwest of Continental Europe. It is the ninth largest island in the world, and the largest European island, as well as the largest of the British Isles...
performer based in Plymouth
Plymouth
Plymouth is a city and unitary authority area on the coast of Devon, England, about south-west of London. It is built between the mouths of the rivers Plym to the east and Tamar to the west, where they join Plymouth Sound...
, endeavoured to perform the trick with his son, Kyder, on 7 January 1935 on a field in Wheathampstead, north of Hatfield
Hatfield, Hertfordshire
Hatfield is a town and civil parish in Hertfordshire, England in the borough of Welwyn Hatfield. It has a population of 29,616, and is of Saxon origin. Hatfield House, the home of the Marquess of Salisbury, is the nucleus of the old town...
in Hertfordshire
Hertfordshire
Hertfordshire is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in the East region of England. The county town is Hertford.The county is one of the Home Counties and lies inland, bordered by Greater London , Buckinghamshire , Bedfordshire , Cambridgeshire and...
, after being granted four days to prepare the site. The presentation was filmed by Gaumont British Films.
His son could climb the rope but did not disappear, and Karachi was not paid.
In 1935, Karachi sent a challenge to the sceptics, for 200 guineas to be deposited with a neutral party who would decide if the rope trick was performed satisfactorily. His terms were that the rope shall rise up through his hands while in a sitting posture, to a height of ten feet, his son Kyder would then climb the rope and remain at the top for a minimum of 30 seconds and be photographed. The rope shall be an ordinary rope supplied by a well known manufacturer and shall be examined. The place could be any open area chosen by the neutral party and agreed to by the conjurers and the spectators could be anywhere in front of the carpet Karachi would be seated on. However the conjurers refused to accept Karachi's challenge.
In 1996, Nature
Nature (journal)
Nature, first published on 4 November 1869, is ranked the world's most cited interdisciplinary scientific journal by the Science Edition of the 2010 Journal Citation Reports...
published "Unraveling the Indian rope trick", by Richard Wiseman
Richard Wiseman
Richard Wiseman is Professor of the Public Understanding of Psychology at the University of Hertfordshire in the United Kingdom.Wiseman started his professional life as a magician, before graduating in Psychology from University College London and obtaining a Ph.D...
and Peter Lamont
Peter Lamont (historian)
Dr. Peter Lamont is a Research Fellow at the University of Edinburgh, working on the history, theory and performance of magic. He is an award-winning magician and a former president of the Edinburgh Magic Circle...
.
Wiseman found at least 50 eyewitness accounts of the trick performed during late late 19th/early 20th centuries, and variations included:
- The magician's assistant climbs the rope and the magic ends.
- The assistant climbs the rope, vanishes, and then again appears.
- The assistant vanishes, and appears from some other place.
- The assistant vanishes, and reappears from a place which had remained in full view of the audience.
- The boy vanishes, and does not return.
Accounts collected by Wiseman did not have any single account describing severing of the limbs of the magician's assistant. Perhaps more important, he found the more spectacular accounts were only given when the incident lay decades in the past. It is conceivable that in the witnesses' memory the rope trick merged with the basket trick
Indian Basket Trick
Indian Basket Trick is a trick with a wicker basket in which an assistant is put into the basket and the performer then puts swords through it. The trick ends while the child or assistant either climbs out of the basket or reappears from behind the crowd unharmed. The Indian Basket trick has been...
.
Citing their work, historian Mike Dash
Mike Dash
Mike Dash is a Welsh writer, historian and researcher. He is best known for his books and articles looking at unusual historical events, anomalous phenomena, and strange beliefs.-Biography:...
wrote in 2000:
- Ranking their cases in order of impressiveness, Wiseman and Lamont discovered that the average lapse of time between the event and witness's report of the event was a mere four years in the least notable examples, but a remarkable forty-one years in the case of the most complex and striking accounts. This suggests that the witnesses embroidered their stories over the years, perhaps in telling and retelling their experiences. After several decades, what might have originally been a simple trick had become a highly elaborate performance in their minds ... How, though, did these witnesses come to elaborate their tales in such a consistent way? One answer would be that they already knew, or subsequently discovered, how the full-blown Indian rope trick was supposed to look, and drew on this knowledge when embroidering their accounts. (Dash, 321)
The explanation
There are various explanations of the trick as stage magic. The trick was performed between two trees or similarly placed objects, and at night. A strong, narrow wire was placed between the trees, and when the rope was thrown above, it got hooked up with the string. This allowed the boy to climb, though not to vanish or be dismembered.However, in his book on the topic, Peter Lamont
Peter Lamont (historian)
Dr. Peter Lamont is a Research Fellow at the University of Edinburgh, working on the history, theory and performance of magic. He is an award-winning magician and a former president of the Edinburgh Magic Circle...
exposed the trick as a hoax created by John Elbert Wilkie
John Elbert Wilkie
John Elbert Wilkie was an American journalist and head of the United States Secret Service from 1898 to 1911.-Journalist:...
while working at Chicago Tribune
Chicago Tribune
The Chicago Tribune is a major daily newspaper based in Chicago, Illinois, and the flagship publication of the Tribune Company. Formerly self-styled as the "World's Greatest Newspaper" , it remains the most read daily newspaper of the Chicago metropolitan area and the Great Lakes region and is...
. Under the name "Fred S. Ellmore" ("Fred Sell More") Wilkie wrote of the trick in 1890, gaining the Tribune wide publicity. About four months later, the Tribune printed a retraction and proclaimed the story a hoax. However, the retraction received little attention, and in the following years many claimed to remember having seen the trick as far back as the 1850s. None of these stories proved credible, but with every repetition the story became more ingrained.
Lamont also notes that no mention appears before the 1890 article. Marco Polo's supposed viewing was only offered after the article was published. Ibn Batuta did report a magic trick with a chain, not a rope, and the trick he describes is different from the "classic" Indian rope trick.
Penn and Teller followed Lamont's work and examined the trick while filming their three-part CBC
Canadian Broadcasting Corporation
The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, commonly known as CBC and officially as CBC/Radio-Canada, is a Canadian crown corporation that serves as the national public radio and television broadcaster...
mini-series, Penn & Teller's Magic and Mystery Tour. The tour travelled the world investigating historical tricks, and while in India they travelled to Agra
Agra
Agra a.k.a. Akbarabad is a city on the banks of the river Yamuna in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh, India, west of state capital, Lucknow and south from national capital New Delhi. With a population of 1,686,976 , it is one of the most populous cities in Uttar Pradesh and the 19th most...
where they recreated the trick.
Penn and Teller invited two British tourists shopping nearby to see what they claimed was a fakir
Fakir
The fakir or faqir ; ) Derived from faqr is a Muslim Sufi ascetic in Middle East and South Asia. The Faqirs were wandering Dervishes teaching Islam and living on alms....
performing the trick. As they walked back, an assistant ran up and claimed the fakir was in the midst of the trick, so they rushed the rest of the way so they wouldn't miss it. As the witnesses neared the room they dropped a thick rope from a balcony. The witnesses saw what they thought was the end of the trick, the rope falling as if it had been in mid-air seconds before. A sheet was then removed from a boy with fake blood at his neck and shoulders, hinting that his limbs and head had been reattached to his torso. According to their account, the rumour that a British couple had witnessed the trick was heard a few weeks later in England.
External links
- Simple version of the trick as 20th Greatest Magic Trick (on YouTube)
- BBC video showing rope trick performed in daylight (viewable within UK only)
- The Rise of the Indian Rope Trick
- Indian rope trick (on Altered Dimensions)
- Indian rope trick - ABC audio clip
- Indian rope trick - The Straight Dope
- Peter Lamont's Homepage
- The rise and fall of the Indian rope trick (Lamont & Wiseman)
- Indian Magicians Web Site