WONDERFUL INTERCHANGE OF THE SOULS OF TWO MEN.

Oamaru Mail, Volume I, Issue 225, 11 January 1877, Page 2

WONDERFUL INTERCHANGE OF THE SOULS OF TWO MEN.

By the direction of the Emperor of Russia, a the most astonishing case of metempsychosis, or wandering of the human soul from one to the world.-. ThWinstance-referred to is vouched for by the Medical Weelcly Journal of St. Petersburg, by a newspaper printed at New Westminster, "British Columbia; by the Imperial Orenburg, by Professor Orlow, of St. Petersburg, and by several gentlemen of New' York, : to whom Orlow'told the strange'story'nine month's ago, and' who themselves had an opportunity tO !! see'"arid converse with the two men whose souls are alleged : to have been so miraculously interchanged. In September; 1874 in Orenburgh, Russia -there lay sick, with typhoid fever, a wealthy Jew, by the name ofi Abraham Charkov, a native of. the place, known, to-.- everybody, married, and : father -.of ...several; children.-: On the 22nd ; day of that.month he : seemed to be dying. ..At midnight .he fered greatly, and the physician pronounced him in the agonies of death. ~ A number of Jews were called in, as is customary, prayers were said, wax catidles lit, the wife and children were sorrowfully weeping over their bereavement, when suddenly the sick man gave a tremendous jerk, heaved a deep sigh, began to breathe more freely, opened his eyes and began to look with amazement at the doings of the people around him, and then fell asleep. The pliyeian announced that now all danger was over. He slept ' through the night; but' what happened in the morning was most wonderful. When he awoke he refused to recognise either his wife or children, and pushed them away in anger when they came near him. Besides, he spoke a language none could understand. Previously he had known only a corrupted mixture of German and Hebrew .and some little Russian, but now when ad" dressed he did not seem to understand. In a, week he was well enough to leaye the bed, but utterly refused to wear his customary elothes. The physicians unanimously, pronounced him insane. In appearance he had ■lot changed. He war the same tall, lean iian, with dark curling locks of air, long Hack ■■curd, and a dark-furrowed line across his "orchead. Yet he spoke an, unintelligible language, refused to know his family, and 3ven his father and mother appeared--as perfect strangers to him. By chance one day he beheld himself in a mirror, and a ...fearful shiiek escaped his lips. He touched, and pulled at his long oriental nose, he felt his long black curls, his flowing black beard, and with a scream he fell to the floor, as in a swoon. The case caused great excitement, and a full report was made to the medical section of the Ministry of the Interior of St. Petersburgh. The order went out to Orenburg to send the Jew and his family, his parents and the other witnesses at once to St.. Petersburgh, to be examined by ths medical faculty.- ; The examination wa-3 conducted by Professor Orlow, one of the most learned men of Russia. The astonishment of the/Professor may be imagined, -when.he found that tkis : illite-.: rate -lew from Orenburg spoke Ipure.idiomatic English, with ■ fluency and. aven>witb some elegance; that he wrote it also grammatically and orthographically correct, while his family and friends insisted. vehemently, that Abraham never in his life spoke anything else but a German-Jewi3 jargon,, and some Russian, and could never write otherwise than in Jewish characters. Still more cause for the professor's wonderment was the statement of the Jew himself in English- that he .was not Abraham Charkov at all; that those who pretended to be his wife and children and parents were total 'stranger's'to Vhim-; that he was not a native of Orenburg, never lived there ; and he was not even'a Russian, but was an Englishman named Abraham Durham, born in the town of New 'Westminster, in British Columbia,'- where' he resided as a fur-dealer, : and where he had a wife and one child living ; that from some inexplicable cause he. found himself changed in appearance, but he naturally js small, in stature, 1 stout in. body,, \nthi fair .complexion,. and blonde hair and whiskers.

The professor and his associated doctors didnotknoww- hat-to since he appeared tpr them; a very, intelligent and-edri, cated Englishman; while the woman>' J herchildren,. and. the bther_„witnesses claimed him to be the illiterate Russo-German Jew —Abraham Charkov. But while the matter was being l faxther'-mvestigated 1 / and-the entire family kept in'' close [ confinement -in St, Petersburgfi,' Abraham "was" missing. ."6nV morning, having escaped on board of an English ship bound for HulL The case was quietly dropped after-his flight, but subsequent events were still; more wonderful. In

OrW seiit By t|e| Russian Go^B^^|-^^k e in- - | tiork, in this city, he found in a New the startling account, WrnM^rHn^^^ ■■' ■ , /\"r 7 1 '"s T ' British Columbian- — 'J /_ J 'i -"-In cently took place,; %~hich <& u ?Hs ß !?* senS *' tion throughout "this-' whole territory of Erii_ tish Columbia.. \ On the 2 Bf-Septemt \, ber, 1874, a fur dealer' of said city was in a : dying condition, suffering" frqtt'typhoidtfefer; ' and no one, not even his physicians/ a ' to enterbain any hope as to the possibility of his recovery. .\iNevertheless,\the patient rallied,.and.fuUy recovered. ; to relate, the, patient,. wbV was Englishman, had forgottenhis mother and speaks a-language-whiclLis.understooa by no one around .him, but which at las<; is recognised by an inhabitant of the city Jip be a jargon of bad Jewish-German., "Ehe patient, who, before his sickness, was a short, stout fellow, and a blonde, is now thin and lean like a stick, refuses to recognise his- wife and child, but insists that he has' a' wife''and children'somewhere else'; the mahis believed"-' to be insane. All at once a veller arrives, marked with a genuine Hebrew face, and claims to 1 be-the* husband of the wife, of.; the fur . dealer. , He speaks- to woman in the same language. as herhusband* was wont to speak to, her.; he gives her,- and even his who live in said city* hutT who, of course, do not recognise him as their:son, the most detailed and minutest descrir . tion of bygone events, and insists upon being the woman's husband and the. parents' son. The poor woman is almost in peril of her reason, the effect of the trying ordeal. She incessantly asks, * Who is this fellow ? How ■ does he come to claim to be my husband ?' When she hears him. speak, and doe'si !not look at his figure, she is ready to think he ia -' her husband ; but as soon as she looks at him the spell is broken; for surely this stranger with the Jewish face cannot be .her husband, whom she just nursed in his sic]-,,., ness. But the mau continues to press his claim, and tells her the most delicate and . secret facts, evidently known only to band and.wife." Professor Orlow read and re-read t. £ count, and the thought struck him thru |_ seemiugly impossible < ccurrence may have som- connection vic-h the strikingly similar case of the Orenburg Jew, Abraham Chafkby, tha ihvest'g vbion of which had so puzzled . him at St. Petersburg. He sent a brief extract of it to the Home Minister of Russia, and asked permission to go to British Columbia and continue his examination tlier-e 1 . Leave was granted him, and June last fouhd ;;c him at New Westminster. There, to his utter surprise, he found the same man, the lank,., black-haired, .black-rwhiskered -Orenburg Jew, Abraham Charkov, who had. < escaped from St. Petersburg, but now claiming to be Abraham Durham. But there he also found the very representative of .the,man described to him by the Jew as he ought to look, a man small in stature, stouj; in body,,. with a fair complexion, and blonde hair, whom all his neighbors and his wife and,,, child said was Abraham Durham, an intelligent, educated 'Englishman', bub who," since his paroxysm of the 22hd day of September, 1874, at high noon, had seemingly forgotten all his knowledge*, of.the' English language, and;iwas, since ; speaking in, a-itongue none could, understand. - Addressing hinij. (the.-, Professor at once ascertained him to speak; the Jewish-German dialect prevalent at Orenburg, and asked him who he was ; the man promptly replied ; that his name was Abraham.'.Charkov, ;a Jewish tradeDOf mean!?; born; and- residing ; at, Orenburg,'in Russia, j u where his parents still lived, giving their correct names; stating, also that he had a wife and three children there, describing them minutely by name and feature's."' ' : - —' There was, at that moment, a noh-plussed . Professorl . ( There, was evidently ho fraud iri the matter, because each of thetwomen exceedingly earnest, in his assertion he. was not himself but ike other man. A'strange.. s circumstance was also that the change in both occurred precisely on the, same. dayj f the t? 22nd day of s September, 18,74 j; Both . siclcwithiyphQidj and both presumed to Be -, in the agonies of death. The distance,ber * tween Orenburg and New Westminster is about 9,000 miles, but the two places are exactly, -opposite leach (other/sy ' podes. , ; Hence .Professox Orlpw. came conclusion that, if.such ,a^ thingasmfitempsy-.-f chosis, or the transmigrajtipn pf one human body to range of possibilities,. ; the.icase of; the itwo / be an evidence of it, since r the. soul .lifet, cAlo' .inner consciousness, of the.cmp pletely changed to that of the other any outward change in the appearance men. He was still more inclined JMJ^BPP

Uflfaf from the fae« that not only the *toy, «f the change in the Iwoswaagriati Thaßussian sttt&reil thiscollage m the 2a»l «* «T4. at a like transfocma.tnca of time and trmgitndio b aauh thuS whea ifi. b mttnight at Oreahurg, it b noon at 2Cew Westminster. **May noli the caaie tor these occurrences be fcmml i« some a» yet andtJco*ere<i iaitancea «£ terrestrial magnetbm f w« one of „ tnf thougUtd. 08 tho ' Jjsarned ■ Pfcrf aamwr,, anil he " conciuttaJ to matte exhaustive enqairics into ~'tfc* affiwß IW thi* purpose fos prevailed . ttpoa both the men t» accompany Iwm to Btwsiay which thoy tiki remaining for aomfe tfoys in New York, where the JProfeaaor finished) the work for which he originally was sent to> America &y 6b Crovernment.. While there,. Professor Ort'ow toltt the account to lavural gentlemen* whose acf|nainCance he had made*andi thoy also spoke Jo the two mixait dpi «omlng to tha same condaaion with the Professor, that here indead was a case, whulty inexpttcaß>t« t» any known law of nature. Since taat November:,. IWeasor Ovtow aatt the two- wonders of the ag« feaflre 6e«& at St: Petersburg, where the inquiry b progressing slowly*