Indian rope trick

English

Karachi performing the Indian rope trick with his son. Magicians have suspected that the "rope" was a rigid iron shaft.

Noun

Indian rope trick (plural Indian rope tricks)

1. A magic trick said to have been performed in and around India during the 19th century, involving the climbing of a rope that appears to rise unsupported into the air.

   Synonym: rope trick

   • 1933, James Hilton, Lost Horizon, published 1973, page 180:

     I asked him if he thought they had any occult or medicinal way of prolonging life or preserving youth, and he said they were supposed to have a great deal of very curious knowledge about such things, but he suspected that if you came to look into it, it was rather like the Indian rope trick - always something that somebody else had seen.