Gallipolis journal. [volume] (Gallipolis, Ohio) 1837-1919, 1876-04-13

Seemeu 70 regaru as his natural foes.
The woman was the first to attack
her ancient enemy, by slyly attempt
ing to nip his tail. He Missed forth
his displeasure and made dart at
her hand, but she was too quick for
him. With equal success the lad
and the man who was playing con-
tinued to provoke the reptile for a
minute or two, but he at length bit
the latter in the hand. The blood
trickled slowly from the wound, but
the man drew from a small bag about
his person what appeared to be
small, dark -colored fat stone, and
pressing it upon the wound, leftit
there, for it appeared to have adhe-
sive and styptic properties. In about
two minutes the blood ceased to flow.
and the quasi stone dropped of. A
small basket was then put before the
snake, INTO which he quietly glided,
and was hidden from sight. ~
The child is seated on the floor.
The father and mother simulate
quarrel; the former takes up and
brandishes the sword, and the child,
seeing its mother threatened, yells
Justify; whereupon the fathers rage
is directed toward it. But the mo-
ther seeing its danger, hastily covers
it with the large basket before used,
over which she throws a large cloth;
nevertheless, the man thrusts his
sword through it into the basket, and
makes lunge or two. Then the
shrieks of the child are heard, the
basket is moved violently about, and
presently all is still. A small stream
of blood is seen issuing from under
the basket, which is lifted up, and
the apparently dead body of the
child is shown lying face downward.
The mother snatches it up, presses it
to her bosom, and otherwise handles
it, and after minute replaces with
an air of resignation under the bas-
ket, seemingly lifeless corpse.
Meanwhile the blood has been wiped
up by the other confederates, and a
short incantation follows, at the end
of whicl, the basket is again raised,
and 10! the child is found seated,
quite unhurt, its laughing face indi-
eating the satisfaction it is deriving
from the Juice of short stick Of SUI
gar-cane which it is crunching be
meath its cleaning teeth.
One of the jugglers then brought
forth ball of fine twine, and un
wound about fifty yards of it in a coil
in his hand; this coil he cut through
with a knife, at each end of its di-
ameter; then doubling several lengths
he cut through them again, and re-
peated the operation till the twine had
been divided into pieces not exceed
ing four inches in length. Taking
up these disjecta he put them into
the child's mouth, and bade him
swallowthem, which after some effort,
he to al appearances did. Fhen
asking one of the company for
sharp pen-knife. the man obviously
made an incision in the lads stom
ache. From this he picked out, with
the point of the knife. the end of a
thread; this thread he pulled forth,
at first gently then faster, then hand
over hand, until he had coiled down
on the ground a continuous length
of about 100 yards of wet sewing
thread. This, if deception, was
a marvellous one; for the operation
had all the appearance and tokens of
reality, since the skin of the stomach
was slightly raised around the orifice
through which the thread was being
evidently drawn.
Our friends were fairly puzzled;
and to add to their perplexity, the
operator cut off the thread close to the
skin, and placed piece of sticking
plaster over it, leaving it to be infer
red that the supply of thread was un-
limited; and could be drawn upon
''to order"
Master, give me one piece of
money" said he who appeared to be
the principal iuggler, suddenly speak
ing in English to MIR Hawthorne.
"WhyT' asked the latter, taking
rupee from his pocket and handingit
to the man.
"Good rupeer' said the man, jerk
ing the coin into the air with a sharp
flip of his thumb nail, and draw
ing the true ring from the metal.
"Good rupee! Master sure can hold
him tight in his hand, so as cannot
run away
"To be sure 1 can," replied the
young gentleman.
"Master try, then." said the jug
gler, taking Mr.. Hawthorne's left
hand, and placing the rupee on tse
palm of it. He then requested the
gentleman to place the palm of his
right hand over the coin, to close
both hands tightly, and not let the
money by any means escape.
Thoroughly determined on that
point, our young friend pressed his
hands together till he was red in the
face.
"Master, quite sure got money in
his hand?' asked the juggler.
"Quite," was the reply.
"Can feel him, Master|
"Yes."
The juggler took the gentleman's
two hands within his own, and NUT
tered some cabalistic words; then
blowing upon them and giving them
heavy shake, he asked with a grin,
"Can feel him now, masterp
Starting from his chair with a
bound, and, we are sorry to record it,
with an oath, the young Englishman,
with an affrighted look, unclasped his
hands, and there fell on the floor be-
meath, not the rupee, but lively
wriggling little brown snake, about
fifteen inches long, which made i'm
mediately for the legs of Captain Nc