The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1899-04-30
RoMANCES OF INDIA.
SOME FAMOUS HINDU FABLES Ex-
POSED.

Special Correspondence OF tHe NiiSaso
| Record.
! Bombay, Feb. 20-In the days of Marco
/ Polo the mango trick may have been
| marvellous feat, but in the cold. critical
non-actinic Hight Of modern times it GER
| talniy is disappointing. The further away
| from India one is the greater appears the
! skill OF these Hindu maglcians. How Of
ten have we read the travellers tales
about the feats Of Indian jugg.ers, and
how eagerly we have looked forward to
the time when we might behold them ana
be spellbound with amazement and SUR
prise. When l first saw the Indian Jug
! gler beginning the Preparations for the
mango trick, 1 was half-prepared by the
\ travellers tales to see a graceful tree
| spring quickly into life and pick quanti-
ties of nice, ripe mangoes. Nothing of the
kind happened, as will be seen by the
following description of the mango trick
as il Is really performed.
The juggler, with a big bag of proper
ties, arrives on the scene and immediate-
ly begins to talk excitedly, meanwhile I'M
| packing various recepta bles taken from
the bag. He squats down, pipes a few
notes on wheezy reed whistle and the
show begins From his belongings he
takes a little tin can about the size of
cove oyster can fills it with dirt and
saturates the dirt with water Then he
holds UP mango seed to show that here
is nothing concealed by his sleeves: counts
Eek, do, tin, char" or "one, two, three,
four" and imbeds the seed in the moist
| earth. He spreads large cloth over the
can and several feet of circumjacent
ground The he plays a few more notes
on his reed instrument and allows the
seed few minutes in which to take root
and develop into a glorious shade tree.
While he is waiting ne unfolds some
snakes from a small basket, takes a mon
goose from bag and entertains his audi
ence with a combat between the mon
goose and one of the snakes.
tk, do, ton, char; one two, three, four
plenty fight-very good mongoose-biga
snake-four rupee mongoose-two rupee
snake-mongoose fight snake. Look-gent-
lymaus-plenty big fight"
The snake, spirttess and not at all in a
fighting mood, is held up by his tail and
the mongoose, whose only object IN life Is
to get back into the snug bag, is "sicked"
on the snake and the thrilling contest be
gins. They don't appear to notice one an
other, and for awhile it looks like a draw.
Finally the mongoose snaps the neck of
the snake and hangs there like grim death
while the startled snake wraps around the
mongoose in LAGOON folds. After a mo-
ment or two the snake unkinks and the
mongoose is dragged of The magician
displays the defeated snake, which still
| wriggles in his death agouies. Some skep-
tics are cynical enough to say that the
snake Is afterward resuscitated for future
gallant battles with the mongooSe, but the
| snake in this particular case seemed to he
beyond the possibility of resurrection. His
tail continued to wriggle, but that does not
| demonstrate conclusively that the upper
| part was alive, for IL is a well known SUI
prostitution that the tail of a snake doesn't
| die until shutdown.
SprOuting of Magic Mango.
All this time the cloth remained peaceful
| and quiet, and there were no uneasy move
ments of its folds to indicate that the
mango crop was flourishing. The juggler
| now turned his attention TO it, however
| poked his hands under the cloth, and after
| a few seconds of mysterious fumbling trl-
| umphantly threw off the cloth, and To-
| there was a little bunch of leaves about
| as big as a spring of water cress sticking
| up dejectediy from the damp earth. THIS
| was straightway deluged with some water
| and the cloth again thrown over IT,
| Once more there was a diversion. This
| time an exhibition of a shell game in
| which the juggler showed considerable
| dezterity in placing the little ball where
! Won didn't think il would be. sim the
| cloth revealed no disposition to bulge
| skvward and q second time the juggler
| fumbied under il, talking hurriedly In Hin
! dustani and making the occasion as IN
! teresting as possible. After much pokins
around ne finally threw off the cloth with
| a glad cry, and there was a mango tree
| a foot high with adult leaves which glis-
! tened with moisture. When his spectator S
| had gazed at 1t for awhile he pulled the
| little tree up by the roots, and there was
a mango seed attached, with little sprouts
| springing out from II.
The trick was over, the juggSers harvest
Of rupees and annas began, and soon his
| crowd faded away. A few minutes later,
from a half-hidden seat on the hotel We
| randa. | saw the wizard over across the
street, beneath the big shade trees, fold
ing up the mango tree and tucking 1t
| compacty into a small bag.
The Deadly Upas Tree.
In thrilling stories of adventure many
poor characters have met an untimely end
beneath the leaves Of The deadly upas
tree" Any one in fiction whoever came
within the radius of lis poisonous shade
was then and there stricken to sudden
death.
Up in the gardens of Peridenija, in the
interior of Ceylon, there is a wonderful
collection of tropical trees. There are
nutmeg, cinnamon, cacao. rubber, Glove,
mango bamboo, ebony, ironwood, guava.
pepper, palm, cocaine, and nearly every
other kind of a tree that grows in warm
climates Among them Is a deadly upas
tree.
| on the afternoon of certain day in 1SsS
to begin this story in the manner OF the
| story books-tWO travels tanned wayfa ears
weary and tired repaired to the shady
depths of the garden and sought shelter
and repose from the blazing sun beneath
beautiful tree. Littie did they suspect
that the malignant influence of poisonous
vapors were upon them and so they rest
ed on, smoking and talking peacefully. Az
ter an hour or so one Of them discovered
little card pinned 20 the tree. and on
| close inspection discovered that Il bore
the name Of the tree. 1t was the Deadly
Upas Tree!'
Whorcupon the trave.ers posed and had
snapshot made OF themselves by a
friendly native. who pressed the button.