Omaha daily bee., 1889-06-23


fangs drawn. a juggler was killed week
ago In Benares by the bite OF cobra, which
he was using In this way, and they are the
most terrible snakes | have ever seen. AT
another performance Of this same kind was
present with party of four and we all
decided TO ascertain, IL we could, how this
trick was done. / stood upon chair and
overlooked the man as he snatched up the
snakes, but could not tell where they came
from, and l only know that he bad them,
and they were so big that he crowded them
with difficulty into n little round basket the
size OF q peck measure.
These jugglers are wonderful snake
charmers They make the snakes do as they
please, and the snakes they use are of the
most deadly kind. was told by an English
man at Benares OF an incident which hap
penod there short time ago. A tugglcr
was performing with snakes, and Hindoo
standing by said that the fangs OF the
snakes had been drawn, and that any man
could do the tricks he was doing. The Jug
gler replied that they were not. The Hindoo
protested, and in spite Of the warnings OF
the iugglor, seized one of the snakes. IL
was a cobra, ana il sunk its fangs into his
arm, A moment later the man dropped TO
tho ground saying he was poisoned, and IN
two hours no was dead. ain told that the
cobra will not bite unless he is angry and
that 1t is only when he Is IN this condition
that his mouth fills with venom. The Jug
glers rely upon this fact, and by petting the
work with them without great Danger.
SAW TWO WOMEN JUGGLERs
at Jeypore. They were bright, intelligent
looking girls, one OF whom appeared almost
old enough TO be the mother of tho other:
They aid many wonderful things, one OF
which was mixing up sand in water and then
putting the hand into the discolored fluid,
they brought q handful of sand, which they
filtered through their fingers as dry as be-
fore it went in, The youngest OF these girls
was perhaps fifteen. She was tall, we'll
formed and fne-looking. She had bracelets
on arms and feet, and her eyes were as beau
tful as those Of II gazelle One of her tricks
was the lifting of heavy chair by her eye.
lids, the thought of which almost makes my
eyes sore. Tho chair was heavy mahogany
one, which belonged to the room in
which l was staying. She tied two strong
strings to the top of this and affixed the ends
of these strings to her eyes by little round
metal cups each about the size of nickle.
These fitted over the cyeballs and under tho
lids and she bent over while they were SO
fastened. Raising herself she pulled up the
chair with these strings, with the muscles OF
her eye-lids, and carried it from one side of
the room to the other. 1t was horrible
sight, and as she took the metal cup. from
her eyes they filled with water and she al
most sank to the floor. ] told her that the
trick was disgusting and that she ought
never TO try it again. Still, for this and the
rest of the shows these girls were well salts
fed with two rupies or about seventy cents.
These women lugglers come from Jeypore
and they are fair type OF the girls OF west,
ern India. am surprised at the variety OF
races you find herea in Indi and therc are
more people in Hindostan than in all Europe.
The costumes Of the women differ i'll differ
ent provinces and in the Andaman Islands in
the Bay of Bengal where
the great prisons of the English are IRE
located, the native women are clad in fig
leaves and u hustle of wicker. These people
have only names for common gender, which
are applicable to either sex and they use
noise like crying to express friendship or
Joy. Some of the hill tribes of India look
very much like negroes, and there are in
India tribes which are little more than saw
ages. In central India only seventeen years
ago there was tribe Of about ten thousand
whose women wore no clothes. The sole
covering of the females consisted of a few
beads around the waist with bunch OF
leaves tied before and behind, and they
were clothed finally by the order of the
English government An English officer
gave strips of cotton to the women and they
put them on. Since then many of them
have gone back to their beads and leaves.
On the slopes of the Himalayas there are
many curious tribes. Some of the tribes
near Darjeeling reckon O journey by the
number of quids of tobacco which they chew
npon the way, and some OF the most
gorgeous specimens OF Hindoo iewclry
have seen saw on the women OF the lima
layas. / remember one mountain pink who
whose limbs were loaded down with silyer.
She had gold plates twice the diameter of a
silver dollar upon her ears and her mouth
was covered by fiat, gold nose ring. Some
of these Hmalaya tribes have
ONE WIFE TO FOUR MEN
and polyandry is common. Here at Bombay
are the prettiest women of India They are
the parSees. With delicate, olive-brown
skins, they are tall and well shaped, have
beautiful eyes and fine intellectual faces.
They dress in silks of the most delicate COL
ors ond the dress seems to consist of one
large piece of silk which is wound around
the waist and carried up over the body to
the top of the head 50 that the face looks out
and the whole hangs in beautiful
drapery. Many of them, l note. have silk
stockings and slippers to match the color of
their dress, and they are the brightest and
prcttiest women / have seen. The parsees
are sun worshipers. There are only about
seventy thousand of them in India. and fifty
thousand of these are here in Bombay. The
men dress in long, preacher-like clothes of
black, with hats shaped like Goa. scuttes
and they are very fine looking. Their dress,
when not in business, is often of the whitest
of linen coats and shirts. They are the best
business men in the world. They own mil
lions of dollars worth of property here in
Bombay and are largely interested in the
trade of India. They are more akin TO the
Christians than the Hindoos in their methods
of living. They believe in spending their
money, dwell in good houses and drive about
in fine carriages. They are charitable us
we'll as rich and some of the finest of the
public buildings of Bombay have been built
by them. They are of Persian descent and
have temples in which burns the sacred fire
of Zoroaster.
Speaking of Bombay and business, one of
the most prosperous institutions of the city
is its tramway, managed by two Americans,
who are, think. from Boston. Their names
are Clark and Kittridge and they have an
excellent property. Bombay is now over
million in population, and there street cars,
on the same plan as those of America, are
driven by turbaned Mohammedans and the
fares are collected by dark skinned Hindoos.
All races rldo on them, and the natives of
India patronize them by the thousands daily.
Looking at them, 1t is a wonder to see that
some means of cheap locomotion has not
been introduced into the cities of China. 1t
is true that many of the streets OF some cit
les are too narrow for street cars, but those
of Picking are widc and the street travel
there is the worst in the world.
There are very few Americans in business
in India. Here in Bombay, which is the
biggest city of the country, there is only
one firm of American merchants, Farnham
& Co., and the other Americans are chiefly
missionaries. The Waterbury watch and
the Singer sewing machine have Bombay
lx,.t