The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1901-08-22

IVA lndla, Is IN town. his name Is .
not to be found on the Hawaii
an Hotel register, nor on that of any
of the local hostelries. At present he
is occupying humble room in the
district of Palama.
Many people have noticed Mahomet
Khan on the street and wondered who
he was He is of diminutive stature,
wirily built. wears his beard parted in
the middle after the custom of his
country, and goes a walking clad in
dark clothes and wearing turpan FOR
headgear.
Mahomet's father was a juggler or
renown in India, and during his life
time impaired the secrets of his pro-
fession to his two sons Mahomet and
Janal. They followed in the footsteps
of their father, and their fame as
jugglers soon spread DER the length
and breadth of the land.
Mahomet Khan has been travelling
all over the world for the last fifteen
years in 1895 he visited England. and
gave performances for over six months
at the Indian exhibition at Earis
Court London. From there he Jour
neyed all over Europe, America AMI
Japan gaining livelihood by the ex
ercise of his art. He came to Homo
lulu from the Philippines about
month ago, and is now awaiting the
arrival of his brother Janal from Yo
kohama In u week or so the two viii
proceed to San Francisco, where they
expect TO sign contracts for an ex-
tended engagement in the Orpheum
circuit
Mahomet Khan is the proud posses
sor of a scrap book containing testi
monials from hundreds of high officials
whom he has entertained by his magic.
They refer to his performances as be
ing unique, marvellous and inimitable.
Mahomets tricks require but little
apparatus, and he is willing to exhibit
them in any we'll lighted room. Before
giving an exhibition he dons his 'spir-
it suit of grotesque pattern and d.
vers colors. and sticks bunch or
feathers in his turban, and behind
each ear. Then, having made sundry
passes with a monkeys skull. and haV-
ing circled the room playing on two
pipes. he is ready for business.
His principal Illusions are the basket
trick, the mango tree, the ring encir-
cled stick. throat fire, the severed
cloth, released balls. and the change
able sand.
Tire basket trick is a puzzle to scien-
lists even today and all illusions In
which persons are made to disappear
and reappear in fun view of the au-
dience. are merely notifications of the
original basket trick A ravorite trick
with modern conjurers is to introduce
wooden cabinet in which persons
vanish and are afterwards made to
reappear, although placed on high feet.
with no passage through which a per
son could pass from the cabinet to
the stage floor the scenes, or the cell
ing. The audience is allowed to ex
anime the cabinet for concealed space,
and to watch round it during the whole
of the transformation.
The general principle undoubtedly is
this: If a looking glass be set upright
in the corner of room. bisectiEg the
right angle formed by the walls the
side wall reflected will appear as if 1t
were the back and hence an object
the space seem to remain unoccupied.
This principle, however, is so carried
out that no sign of the existence of
any mirror is discernibIe under the
closest inspection.
Mahomet Khan does his trick with
out mirrors and in a room which has
not been previously prepared with the
Asked by a friend to perform the trick
in Honolulu, he said that he must have
the assistance of his brother~and de-
clared his perfect Willingness to give
an exhibition when his brother ar
rived.
The deIusion is this: man is placed
in a basket woven out of rushes and
the cover is put on. After five minutes
the cover is removed and the basket
found to be empty. The cover is again
put on, and two minutes later the man
energies from the basket
In the ring trick a ring is placed in
the folds of a handkerchief and passed
round among the audience for inspec-
ton. Then a cane is produced and
two members of the audience hold each
end in a horizontal position Mahomet
Khan, after a little hanky-panky with
the monkeys skull, lets the handker-
chief with the ring in it lie across the
cane, and withdrawing it smartly the
ring is found to encircle the stick
The trick of the mango tree is very
clever, and apparently inexplicab1e.
Mahomet takes a flower pot and after
filling it with earth plants a mango
seeding six inches high, which he wa
tiers. The pot is then covered with a
cloth and the magician plays FOR a
couple Of minutes on his pipes. Pres
entity the cloth is seen to rise and on
being removed mango tree foot
high is disclosed
The tree is once more covered With
the cloth, and after some more music
by Mahomet, keeps on growing until
it attains a height of two feet. new
plant has to be utilized for each per-
Torrance. as to make the tree dimin-
ish in size is beyond Mahomet-s art.
The fire trick consists of the per-
former placing a soft leather ball in
his mouth and ejecting therefrom for
the period of about five minutes
profusion of sparks and clouds of
smoke. This continues until Mahomet
Khan has to desist on account of dan
ger from choking.
In the cloth trick Mahomet takes
nine or ten yards of cloth four inches
wide and having doubled them a num-
Der of times, places them in the hands