Abdullah, Persian Dervish, Lifting A Box With His Eyelids

Rare Coney Island Dreamland Circus Sideshow postcard of this dancing Arabic performer with long hair and elaborate costume lifting a wooden box with his hooks in his eyelids........ True dervishes were members of a Sufi religious order who has taken vows of poverty and austerity. Dervishes first appeared in the 12th century; they were noted for their wild or ecstatic rituals and were known as dancing, whirling, or howling dervishes according to the practice of their order.