The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1896-01-26

small disk-shaped pocket mirror. He
taxes the mirror in one hand and the
bears claw in the other. Then. swaying
his body from side to side, and keeping up
a monotonous chanting. he brings the claw
nearer to the mirror until finally there is
| contact between the two. and the claw
stands upon its point upright on the
mirror. Presently, by sudden move
ment, the glass is turned upside down,
and the claw still remains attached TO 1t
| by the point. II is quite surprising, but
particle OF ordinary spruce gum does the
whole business.
The late Garrick Mallery of the bureau
OF ethnology once told me of something
/ quite unaccountable which he witnessed
| at White Earth in 1860. There was pres
emf a famous mystery man, who made
| a bet with the local government agent
! that the latter could not tie him with ropes
IN such manner that he would not be
able to disengage himself off-hand The
/ agent, assisted by Mallory and other
! white men, tied the Indian up in the most
/ elaborate fashion, and put him inside of
! a conical wigwam in the middle of an
open space. Nobody else was permitted to
/ come near him. As quickly as they had
/ Withdrawn, tremendous humping sounds
/ were heard from the hut. which swayed
| from side to side, as II it would be torn
Two or three minutes later the In
/ dian called out, telling them to go to
/ certain house several hundred yards away
/ where they would find their ropes One
of the white men was sent to the house
and he found the ropes, with all of the
complicated knots united The tying
committee opened the wigwam then and
found the wizard smoking a pipe, with
his black magic stone on his lap. Nei-
| Their pipe nor stone had been there pre-
/ Viously. The head priest of the wizard $
society, having heard of this exhibition,
sent word that he would be killed if he
/ repeated such a performance for gain
/ Evidently it was deemed improper that
religious business of. that sort should be
The Wabeno tribe has a great repu-
/ taton for certain kinds OF Juggling. These
Indians are called by. others the Players
| with Fire They perform many horrible
| ceremonies at night in which fire is con-
/ cerned. They handle fire and walk
through it. 1t is said that they can cause
flames to issue from their ears, mouths
| and nostrils. 1t is a common belief that
/ they are able TO transform themselves in
to animals with. fiery eyes. One trick
which they really perform seems fairly
unaccountable. A Wabeno mystery man
seats himself in his lodge, while the young
men surround it entirely with a ring of
brightly blazing fire.
AT the same time an empty lodge at a
distance of fifty PAGES will be encircled
closed tightly, all the people in the viii
lage looking on intently, and yet, after
the space of a few moments, the ma
gician the faggots having been kicked
away, is discovered calmly sitting in what
was before the empty lodge, while the
one which he previously occupied is left
Belonging to a tride with which 1 had
acquaintance was no-account Indian.
| generally 0eSplSed by MS Fellow redskins,
who a. ways carries about with him med
icine bag made of an old duckskin. on
one occason-so the story was told to
me-he Joined a fishing party. While they
were off on the expedition several boat
loads of hostile savages appeared. They
tried to escape, but their foes could pad
chance to get away. The pursuers came
on so swiftly that the pursued were de-
moralized. One of the latter remarked to
the no-account Indian: If your duckskin
is any good, make medicine with it now,
and make it quick In response the owner
of the ducksBin bag held it in the water,
and at once the speed of the boat increas-
ed so much that the hunting party es-
capped. Seemingly. the spirit of the duck
operated atter the manner OF paddle
wheel and pushed the craft along.
Il was much mystifed on one occasion
by trick that saw performed in big
medicine lodge In the course of a long
ceremonial an Indian took a bag about
the size of a large handkerchief and ma
nipulated it in such manner as to show
that it contained nothing. Then he dane
ed around the lodge slowly, holding the
bag between his fingers by the upper cor
ners. Presently the heads of two snakes
appeared from the mouth of the bag, and
about a foot of the length of each snake
became visible. But it CHANGED that the
juggler in his dancing passed by the open
door of the lodge, and then l understood
the fake. The light shining through the
bag showed that it contained no snakes
What had appeared from the bag was
merely stuffed heads and bodies for a
short length of couple of rattlers. They
were made to stick out by pullins the
piece of tape to which they were attached
"A good many of these Indian tricks
was able to solve. Some of the most re-
markable ones, which are perfectly well
authenticated, never saw. 1 knew of a
juggler who could take ripe red cherries
out of his mouth at any season of the
year. One credible witness assured me
that he knew the cherries were real. be
cause he had eaten them. 1 have made
quite business of exposing such aborig-
inal magic which does good deal OF
onizing the introduction of the Chris tiau
religion and the progress of civilization
among the savage tribes.
l have done somewhat of the same sort
of work that was performed by Houdin,
who was sent by the French government
to Algiers for the purpose of outjuggling
the Algerian Jugglers By doing so he con-
WINGED the Algerians that their jugglers
were not divinely inspired. One trick he
performed was the firing of bullets which
made splashes of blood on the target. The
lead bullets ostensbly used dropped into a
cavity in the gunstock pellets of wax
filed with red fluid being substituted.
The effect of this trick on the Algerians
was astonishing. ! have produced an equal
effect by turning water into blood. 1t was
very simple. Put a few drops of chloride
of iron in one glass and few drops of
sulpho-cyanide in another, permitting
them to dry. Then put clear water in both
glasses. Pour the contents of one glass
into the other, and the resulting LIQUID is
blood red. Throw it away, of course, be-
fore anybody can examine it critically
Anotner trlck OF mine was TO set sugar
on FIRE. My sugar was real sugar mixed
with elaborate of potash. would get an
Indian mystery man to dip a stick into
water to see If he could set the sugar on
fire with water. When he failed l took my
turn. but my stick had been dipped pre-
viously into sulphuric acid, and / merely
made pretense of putting it into water.
When the stick touched the sugar, the
chlorate of potash was lgnited by the sui
phuric acid, and a great blaze followed,
Many such simple chemical experiments /
nave performed for the purpose of aston
ishlng the Indians, and they rate me as
a first-class magician"
"A gsnealogist has figured it out that