roken glass.

I have given an account of the nature of the performance with which Yoga
Rama favoured us. I will now proceed to describe the experiments more in
detail and to comment upon them.

Mr. Marriott was the first person to sit on the chair in front of Yoga
Rama. He was told to hold his left hand in front of his face, to trace
the first letter of the name thought of on the palm of his left hand
with the forefinger of the right, and give the taps or make the
movements in the air with his right hand in the manner already
described. Mr. Marriott, instead of holding his left hand up, held his
right hand. Yoga Rama immediately said, "Not your right hand but your
left." This was a suspicious circumstance, as it indicated that Yoga
Rama could see notwithstanding he was blindfolded. Now conjurers know
that blindfolding in the manner above described is not a precaution
against seeing, as at the time of blindfolding what the conjurer does is
to shut his eyes tightly and bring his eyebrows well down. When the
blindfolding is finished, the conjurer opens his eyes and draws his
eyebrows up; the bandages will then be displaced and drawn up from their
original position and he will be able to see under the bandages through
the spaces between the bridge of his nose and his cheeks. This, in the
joint opinion of Mr. Zancig, Mr. Marriott, and myself, is what Yoga Rama
did, and our opinion was confirmed when we examined the bandages at the
time they were removed from the performer's eyes, as will be described
later.

Yoga Rama's method of telling the name thought of is to watch the
movement of the finger of the sitter's right hand while he traces the
first letter of the name on the palm of the left. This indicates to him
the first letter of the name, then he counts the number of taps or
movements given by the sitter's right hand. Thus, if the first letter
were W and the number of taps or movements seven, the name in all
likelihood would be William, or, if the first letter were W and the
number of taps or movements six, the name would probably be Walter.
Ordinary Christian names are limited in number, and Yoga Rama took care
to know beforehand whether the sitter were thinking of a female name or
of a male name. It was therefore not a difficult matter for him to hit
upon the name. Moreover, when he was in doubt, as was often the case, he
not only asked that the first letter should be traced, but the second
and the third and the four