Perhaps, the abandoned bones buried somewhere beneath my feet have some life in them yet. Knowing Alexander Malcolm Jacob as I do now, nothing would surprise me.
NOTES
PROLOGUE
1.
The Times of India, September 12, 1891.
2.
For a history of the Imperial, see George Kunz, ‘Four Large South African Diamonds,’ Science, no. 235, 1897, 69–70.
3.
The Englishman, December 12, 1891.
4.
National Archives of India (hereafter NAI), Memorandum, January 3, 1912, Foreign Department proceedings, February 1912, 79–80.
5.
Ohinemuri Gazette, March 18, 1921.
6.
The descriptions of Jacob are drawn from a variety of sources including Francis Marion Crawford, Mr Isaacs: A Tale of Modern India; Frederick W. Heath, ‘The Story of Mr Isaacs’s Life,’ The Occult Review, vol. 16, November 1912; and various newspaper stories and obituaries.
7.
Flora Annie Steel, Voices in the Night: A Chromatic Fantasia, 5.
8.
The Times, January 17, 1921.
9.
The Pall Mall Gazette, May 26, 1897.
10.
Frederick W. Heath, ‘The Story of Mr Isaacs’s Life’, 190.
CHAPTER ONE: THE HEALER OF SICK PEARLS
1.
Rudyard Kipling, Kim, 197–200.
2.
Ibid., 200.
3.
The Times of India.
4.
Cited in Edward Buck, Simla Past and Present, 36.
5.
Kipling, The Civil & Military Gazette, October 1, 1887, cited in Kipling, Rudyard, Andrew Lycett, Kipling Abroad: Traffics and Discoveries from Burma to Brazil, 27.
6.
Kipling, Something of Myself, 64.
7.
Emund Russell, ‘Mr Isaacs of Simla,’ The Occult Review, vol. 26, April 1917, 164.
8.
Heath, The Story of Mr Isaacs’s Life, 21.
9.
Heath, The Story of Mr Isaacs’s Life, 192.
10.
Doz, Simla in Ragtime, 66.
11.
Beresford Harrop, Thacker’s New Guide to Simla, 40.
12.
Humphrey Bullock, ‘Mr Jacob’s Little Business’, The Irish Monthly, vol. 81, no. 963, 451.
13.
Kipling, Kim, 194.
14.
The Times of India, June 24, 1884.
15.
Kipling, The Man Who Would Be King, 19.
16.
Heath, The Story of Mr Isaacs’s Life, 193.
17.
Ibid., 194.
18.
Heath, ‘Mr Isaacs’ and his Seances,’ The Occult Review, vol. 16, August 1912, 22.
CHAPTER TWO: BLACK AMIDA
1.
Francis Marion Crawford, Mr Isaacs, 20.
2.
The Asiatic Journal and Monthly Miscellany, May–August 1838, 16.
3.
The Popular Overland Guide, Hints to Travellers by the Overland Route to India, Australia, and China, 63.
4.
William Eleroy Curtis, Modern India, 26.
5.
Marianne Postans, Western India in 1838, vol. 1, 77.
6.
Crawford, Mr Isaacs, 25–6.
7.
Gilbert Frankau, The Woman of the Horizon, 34.
8.
Frost, Biography of Mister Louis al-Birriī al-Rahāwiī, 1.
9.
Grattan Geary, Through Asiatic Turkey: Narrative of a Journey from Bombay to the Bosphorus, vol. 2, 209.
10.
Ibid., 207.
11.
Ely Banister Soane, To Mesopotamia and Kurdistan in Disguise, 64.
12.
Horatio Southgate, Narrative of a Visit to the Syrian (Jacobite) Church of Mesopotamia, 100.
13.
Ibid., 103.
14.
Alice Elizabeth Dracott, The Voice of Mystic India, 132.
15.
Ibid., 183.
16.
The Pall Mall Gazette, September 14, 1891.
17.
The Englishman, October 12, 1891.
18.
Bombay Gazette, October 10, 1891.
19.
‘Yakup Bektas, The Sultan’s Messenger: Cultural Constructions of Ottoman Telegraphy, 1847–1880, 692.
20.
Ibid., 692.
21.
Henry Barkley, A Ride Through Asia Minor and Armenia: Giving a Sketch of the Characters, Manners, and Customs of Both the Mussulman and Christian Inhabitants, 271.
22.
Frankau, Gilbert, The Woman of the Horizon, 37-38.
23.
Ibid., 39.
CHAPTER THREE: PROSTITUTES, PRINCES AND A POISONING CASE
1.
The Pioneer, September 20, 1881.
2.
Quoted in Hyderabad Affairs, vol. 3, 446.
3.
The Madras Times, August 8, 1867.
4.
Edwin Arnold, India Revisited, 1886, 310.
5.
The Pall Mall Gazette, September 14, 1891.
6.
Street’s Indian and Colonial Mercantile Directory for 1870, 10.
7.
Harper’s Magazine, vol. 34, 1867, 301.
8.
Shirley Bury, Jewellery 1789–1910: The International Era, 113.
9.
NAI, Dholepoor Affairs, 1873, Political A, 345–57.
10.
Claude Clerk quoted in Hyderabad Affairs, vol. 3, 492.
11.
Bombay Chronicle, January 12, 1921.
12.
Marcus Paul Dare, Indian Underworld: A First-hand Account of Hindu Saints, Sorcerers, and Superstitions, 43.
13.
Bombay Gazette, October 10, 1891.
14.
NAI, Dholepoor Affairs, 1873, Political A, 345–57.
15.
Ibid.
16.
NAI, ‘The Misdoings of the Woman Gujra in Dholepoor’, 1871, Political B, 15–17.
17.
Ibid.
18.
NAI, Dholepoor Affairs, 1873, Political A, 345–57.
19.
Bombay Gazette, October 10, 1891.
20.
John Lord, The Maharajas, 135.
21.
The Examiner, June 19, 1875.
22.
NAI, Foreign Department Proceedings, Secret-I, February 1912, 79–80.
23.
Ibid.
24.
Ibid.
25.
The Bengalee, December 11, 1891.
26.
Ibid.
27.
The Friend of India, November 12, 1874.
28.
NAI, Foreign Department Proceedings, Secret-I, February 1912, 79–80.
CHAPTER FOUR: THE JEWELLER OF SIMLA
1.
K.G. Jayne, ‘Vasco Da Gama and his Successors’, cited in Bala Krishnan, Usha R. Meera Sushil Kumar and Bharath Ramamrutham, Dance of the Peacock: Jewellery Traditions of India, 26.
2.
A.H.L.Heeren, Historical Researches into the Politics, Intercourse, and Trade of the Principal Nations of Antiquity. Asiatic Nations. vol. 3, 354.
3.
Usha R., Bala Krishnan, Dance of the Peacock, 246.
4.
George Winius, ‘Jewel Trading in Portuguese India in the XVI & XVII Centuries,’ Indica, vol. XXV, 14.
5.
Heath, ‘The Story of Mr Isaacs’s Life’, 192.
6.
Russell, ‘More about “Mr Isaacs’s Gems and Jewels”’, The Occult Review, vol. 26, September 1917, 155.
7.
Ibid., 154.
8.
Ibid., 153.
9.
Pat Barr, and Ray Desmo
nd, Simla: A Hill Station in British India, 26.
10.
‘Sir Henry Sharp’, cited in Vipin Pubby, Shimla Then & Now, 37.
11.
Doz, Simla in Ragtime. 24.
12.
Cited in Jeffrey Meyers, ‘The Great Game and the Afghan Wars,’ World and I, January 2002.
13.
Cited in Sir Owen Tudor Burne, Memories, 100.
14.
Cited in Mike Davis, Late Victorian Holocausts: El Niño Famines and the Making of the Third World, 31.
15.
Heath, ‘The Story of Mr Isaacs’s Life’, 193.
16.
Cited in Karl Meyer and Shareen Blair Brysac, Tournament of Shadows: The Great Game and the Race for Empire in Central Asia, 184.
17.
Cited in Damodar Singhal, India and Afghanistan, 1876–1907: A Study in Diplomatic Relations, 35.
18.
Lady Betty Balfour, The History of Lord Lytton’s Indian Administration, 1876 to 1880, 259.
19.
NAI, Foreign Department Proceedings, Secret-I, February 1912, 79–80.
20.
Cited in Meyer and Brysac, Tournament of Shadows, 192.
CHAPTER FIVE: MR 50 PER CENT
1.
The Times of India, August 17, 1869.
2.
The Pioneer, October 14, 1881.
3.
Baron Thomas Babington Macaulay, Critical, Historical, and Miscellaneous Essays and Poems, 339.
4.
Nirad C. Chaudhuri, Clive of India: A Political and Psychological Essay, 370.
5.
The Pioneer, September 20, 1891.
6.
Ibid.
7.
The Times of India, October 5, 1891.
8.
Ibid.
9.
The Pioneer, October 15, 1881.
10.
The Civil & Military Gazette, October 15, 1881.
11.
The Pioneer, October 15, 1881.
12.
The Pioneer, October 4, 1881.
13.
The Pioneer, September 20, 1891.
14.
Ibid.
15.
Ibid.
16.
The Pioneer, October 3, 1881.
17.
The Civil & Military Gazette, October 6, 1881.
18.
The Times of India, October 6, 1881.
19.
Ibid.
20.
The Friend of India & The Statesman, October 24, 1881.
21.
The Pioneer, October 14, 1881.
22.
Ibid.
23.
The Friend of India & Statesman, October 31, 1881.
24.
The Pioneer, October 14, 1881.
25.
The Pioneer, October 15, 1881.
26.
The Times of India, October 27, 1881.
27.
The Pioneer, October 18, 1881.
28.
Ibid.
29.
The Times of India, October 27, 1881.
30.
The Friend of India & Statesman, October 31, 1881.
CHAPTER SIX: ALL THE POWERS OF MOSES—AND MORE
1.
Abbé DuBois, Hindu Manners, Customs and Ceremonies, 70.
2.
Harry Kellar, ‘High Caste Indian Magic,’ The North American Review, 76.
3.
Ibid., 76.
4.
Mary Walter Tibbits, Cities Seen in East & West, 250.
5.
Russell, ‘“Mr Isaacs” of Simla’, 161.
6.
Ibid., 249.
7.
Cited in Peter Lamont, The Rise of the Indian Rope Trick: How a Spectacular Hoax Became History, 20–1.
8.
Charles Bertram, A Magician in Many Lands, 108.
9.
The description of Jacob’s magic is taken from Roslyn D’Onston, ‘A Modern Magician: An Autobiography by a Pupil of Lord Lytton,’ Borderland, vol. III, April 1896, reprinted in Crowley’s Ripper: The Collected Works of Roslyn D’Onston, Kobek.com Klassic Reprint, 2005/2006.
10.
Ibid., 76–7.
11.
Ibid., 58.
12.
The News of the World, October 7, 1888.
13.
D’Onston, ‘A Modern Magician: An Autobiography by a Pupil of Lord Lytton,’ 77.
14.
For a description of Jacob’s alleged tricks see: Ibid., 78–83.
15.
Otago Witness, July 9, 1896.
16.
The Pall Mall Gazette, May 26, 1897.
CHAPTER SEVEN: THE MYSTERIOUS MR ISAACS
1.
Maitland Armstrong and, Margaret Armstrong, Day Before Yesterday: Reminiscences of a Varied Life, 219.
2.
F. Marion Crawford: ‘A Conversation,’ McClure’s Magazine, vol. 4, 320.
3.
Maud Howe Elliott, My Cousin: F. Marion Crawford, 64.
4.
Ibid., 58.
5.
Ibid., 54.
6.
Crawford, Mr Isaacs, 7.
7.
Ibid., 11.
8.
Ibid., 12.
9.
John Pilkington, Francis Marion Crawford, 36.
10.
Crawford, Mr Isaacs, 17.
11.
Pilkington, 50.
12.
Crawford, Mr Isaacs, 16.
13.
Ibid., 314.
14.
Ibid., 110.
15.
Ibid., 241.
16.
Ibid., 42.
17.
Ibid., 73.
18.
Pilkington, Francis Marion Crawford, 38.
19.
Ibid., 49.
20.
Cited in Robert Bridges, Suppressed Chapters and Other Bookishness, 123.
21.
‘F. Marion Crawford: A Conversation’ McClure’s Magazine, vol. 4, 320.
22.
Pilkington, 50.
23.
Ibid., 52.
24.
Mary Hugh Faser, A Diplomatist’s Wife in Many Lands, 140.
25.
Ibid., 141.
CHAPTER EIGHT: A CLEVER CONJUROR
1.
Marion Meade, Madame Blavatsky: The Woman Behind the Myth, 24.
2.
Ibid., 25.
3.
Ibid., 39.
4.
Peter Washington, Madame Blavatsky’s Baboon: A History of the Mystics, Mediums and Misfits Who Brought Spiritualism to America, 33.
5.
Richard Hodgson, ‘Russian Intrigue or Religious Evolution?’ The Age, September 12, 1885.
6.
Ibid.
7.
K. Paul Johnson, The Masters Revealed: Madame Blavatsky and the Myth of the Great White Lodge, 216.
8.
NAI, Proceedings of Madame Blavatsky, KW Secret, December 1878, 302–5.
9.
The World, vol. XXVII, September 12, 1886, 13.
10.
The Canadian Theosophist, vol. 67, no. 5, Toronto, November–December, 1986.
11.
Cited in Johnson, 216.
12.
Cited in Meade, 221.
13.
The Bengalee, June 17, 1886.
14.
The Statesman, September 25, 1892.
15.
The New York Times, March 7, 1886.
16.
Tibbits, Cities Seen in East & West, 249.
17.
Russell, ‘Mr Isaacs of Simla’, 163.
18.
The Theosophist, vol. 4, no. 5, February 1883, 124–6.
19.
Gertrude Williams, Priestess of the Oc
cult: Madame Blavatsky, 148.
20.
Russell, ‘Mr Isaacs of Simla’, 163
21.
Buck, 164.
22.
The Times of India, October 9, 1880.
23.
Williams, 149.
24.
Russell, ‘Mr Isaacs of Simla’, 162.
The Mysterious Mr Jacob: Diamond Merchant, Magician and Spy Page 28