Fayetteville observer. [volume] (Fayetteville, Tenn.) 1850-1966, 1866-07-19
Hindoo Jugglery.

lnvOcatlOnS; and covers 1t up. In
a short time he removes the cover
and behold, the mango has sprout'
ed. Again he covers it up, and
again he looks: the sprout has
widened to a full grown shoot, with
expanding leaves and forming
blossom. Again, the fruit is full
ly formed. Again, it is ripening;
and now, again for the last time,
the cover is removed, when the
mango, fully grown, is graceful
ly handed to the witnesses to
taste. In another moment the
mango tree is the withered stick
it was in the beginning. Yet, this
is professional jugglery, mere de-
lusion of the senses by manual
dexterity, and such as the juggler
of Ashwell Thorpe achieved when
he planted his acorn and reared
his oak and caused the two Cos
lings to carry away the chips
which the couple of stout laborers
had made.
Another Hindoo trick is the
girl and the basket. A circle is
formed, say of soldiers, standing
thick and serried; the juggler, the
| child, the basket, the witnesses, are
in the centre of the circle; and
the whole scene, remember, takes
place out of doors. The juggler,
after going throgh his less exciting
tricks, keeping up shower of
balls with his hands while he keeps
up shower of rings with his toes,
perhaps at the same time balancing
a loose stick tower on his chin,
building up his jointed pole on his
| forehead, up which the trained
goat runs and stands, with all
four feet on the top, on space
not half so large as ones head, !
with girl standing on the top of |
all, with which singular head
dress he dances about the circle, i
juggling his balls, as usual, or
stringing beads on a thread with
his tongue, after holding a staff in
his waistband and letting his broth
er juggler climb up it and lay
himself all abroad on the top, legs
and arms flying to all four quar-
ters, and the body balanced only
on one part Of the stomach: after
these and other kindred displays,
he comes to the finale of all-the
girl and the basket.
The juggler calls the little girl
to him and begins to play with her,
at first gently, then little more
boisterously, until at last. he
thrusts her roughly under the bas-
ket, and tells her he shall keep
her there until she is good. The
little girl begins to whine and re-
monstrate underneath the basket. ,
The juggler gets angry, scolds her, !
and tells her to hold her tongue, :
or he will whip her; but the little ,
one is unappeasable, and the quar- +
rel goes on, increasing in intensity, +
until at last the man, in a parox- O
ysm of anger, draws his sword and :
thrusts it wildly into the basket.
The screams of the child are heart O
rending, her yells and cries agoni- a
zing, but the juggler stabs and $
stabs again, and works his sword t
about the wickerwork in uncon- a
trollable and fendish fury. Then 0
the child's voice ceases, and just a n
a few heavy sobs are heard; then
some fainter means, fainter, faint
er, as the last gasp of a murder G.
ed child would be, and then all is v
still. The juggler pulls his bloody s.
sword from the basket, wipes it, h
and composedly bows to the wit @
nesses, who are generally in a
state Of hysterical distress ) some
times, indeed, they are with diff v
Guilty kept from tearing the man to e
pieces, especially in one case n
known to the writer, when an Off g
,er, himself quivering in every
limb, with horror and agitation,
lad actually to defend the juggler d
rom the excited men. 81
. How it might have Jared with o.
nim heaven only knows, but on 81
lis giving a peculiar cry, the little
girl came bounding and laughing
n the circle, coming from behind CT
he astonished spectators, though p