The Placer herald., 1856-07-05
The Jugglers Of India.

One morning after had passed some days
at Madras, went to the garden-house" OF
one of my English friends, to sec an exhbi
ton by some iuglers who had been sent for
the nj ght before to come up from the Black
Town. The jugglers of Madras are famous
as the best in India. They form a cast by
themselves Their skill is the result of the
practice of successive generations, and their
art is an hereditary one. 1t was about six
o'clock in a clear September morning and
our party consisted Of five or six spectators.
Coffee hay no been served we took our seats
on the verandah on the shady side of the house
while the iugglers, of whom there were fifteen
or twenty, men women and children, ranged
themselves before lis on the grass at the tarth-
er end OF the avenue, ten or twelve feet wide,
! that run between us and them. Behind
! them was green field on which at some
distance grew few trees and Towering
shrubs. There was nothing near them that
could afford hiding place or shelter. The
men wore nothing but the dhotee or tight
cloth about their lons: two of them were
very old, with white boards lying upon their
dark skins The women were clothed in the
common bright loose dress Of the lower elias
ses and the little children were quite naked.
The implements of their art. their musical
! Instruments. and the fiat, circular baskets in
which were their snakes, for the iuggcrs are
also snake charmers by profession, lay
around about upon the grass.
One OF the young men began the exhibition
with some common tricks of slight of hand
remarkably only from the fact that his dress
and the ground aflording him no aids Then
another came forward and throwing four brass
balls into the air, kept them in constant mo-
! tion, now making them circle around his
head, now throwing them in opposite drec
tions under his arms and over his shoulders
now chasing one with another, never missing
the instantaneous chance with incredible
quickness of eve and quckness of hand, with
incomp ehensible de|iracy making them
wheel about him as if they were the obedient
servants Of his will. Such exquisite skill
makes ones own hand seem utterly clumsy
and inetiic. ent Al the while that this iugger
was playing SO beautifully with the glittering
brass balls, one OF his companions beat upon
duh drum, while the Others looked on and
now aud thcn at some peculiarly successful
or long sustained flight, broke out with
murmur OF encouraging applause. Then
| followed i'll quick successor other not less
remarkable eals OF strength, agility and skill
--ca.s On poles, with swords, with stones,
with rbands-teats indeed of all sorts, and all
sorts, and all with apparent ease that made
them not less pleasant than wonderful to see
The jugglers seemed subtle and 1.-the as spirits,
Not tied Or manacled with joint or limb,
Nor founded on the brittle strength OF bone
Like cumor0ns flesh
But the most wonderful performance that
we saw this morning, was a feat of pure jug
Cling, Of which | have never been able to
find any solution. One of the old men came
forward upon the graveled and hard-trodden-
avenue leading with him woman. He made
her knecl down, tied her arms behind her.
and bnd-folded her eyes. Then bringing a
great bag net made with open meshes of rope
he put it over the woman, and laced up the
mouth, fastening it with knotted INTERVENING
cords in snch way that it seemed an impos
sibiIity for her to extricate herself from it.
The man then took a closely woven wicker
basket that narrowed toward the top, lifted
the woman in the net from the ground, and
placed her in it, though it was not with
out the eXerton of some force that he could
crowd her through the narrow mouth Hav-
inc succeeded in getting her into the basket, in
which, from its small size she was necessarily
in most cramped position, he put the cover
upon it aud threw over il white strip of
cIoth hiding it completed Y. In moment
placing his hand under the cloth he drew out
the net quite united and disentangled, He
then took long straight, sharp sword, NUT
tered some words to himself while he sprink
led dnst upon the cloth and put some on his
forehead then pulled off and threw aside the
covering, and plunged the sword suddenly
into the basket. Prepared as i'll some degree
we were for this, and knowing that it was
only deception, it was yetmposSlbIe to see
it without a cold creeping Of horror. The
gu ct and energy with which he repeated hls
strokes, driving the sword through and
through the basket, while the other juggers
looked on apparently as much interest ed as
ourselves, were very dramatic and effective
Stopping after he had riddled the basket he
again scattered dust upon its top, lifted the
id, took up the basket from the ground
showed it to us empty, and threw it away.
Atthe same time we saw the woman approach
iny us from a clump Of trees at a distance Of
at least fifty or sixty feet.
Throughout the whole Of this inexplicable
feat, the old man and woman were quite re-
moved from the rest of their party. The
basket stood by itself on tie hard earth, and
SO much beneath the verandah on which we
were sitting, that we could easily see all
around it. BY what trick our wa.chfuI eyes
were closed, or by what means the woman
invisibIy escaped was an entire mystery, and
remains unsoved The feat is not n very
uncommon one, but no one who had seen it
ever gave me a clue to the manner in which
it was performed.
ARREST ON A REQU1sITIoN-The Chroni-
cJo of Tuaedav savc Mr. vman Swan of the