Year: 1876

INDIAN JUGGLERS.


| Belgravia Magazine.


Just as luncheon had been finished
the dubash, Ramaswammy, entered
the room, and announced that the
iugglers were in attendance in the
varandah; upon which Mr.. Gingham
leading the way, the whole party ad
journed to it, and were soon seated
in comfortable fashion, each betaking
himself to pipe or cigar as pleas
ed him best.


The jugglers' party consisted OF
two men, woman, a lad and child
of about four years Of age. They
had with them large basket, con.
tanning their stock-ln-trade; and, with
the exception of the woman, were
but scantily clad. The latter had a
small Indian tabor before her, which
she occasionally snatched up and
struck with the tips of her fingers, to
add expression to some of the wild
chants which were introduced dur
ing the phases of the exhibition. We
pass over the dexterous manipulation
of the cups and balls-the whirling
of dozen oranges in the air, not one
of which ever touched the ground
or clashed with another-the passing
of the long blade of a knife down the
throat-the steadiness of hand and
eye which kept from tour to six sharp
knives flashing and circling in the
air, without inflicting a scratch on
the performer of the exploit. Won
derful, too, was the performance OF
the pigmy goat, made OF wood o,
some other substance, and covered
with the skin of that animal, which
drank up pint of water presented to
it in an earthen vessel without any
visible increase of bulk. We men
ton these rather as feats of dexterity
though they excited in no small de
gree the admiration of the spectators
but what followed could not appar
emily be referred to a like cause.


For instance, the lad was made to
drink powder dissolved in a little
water, at which he made wry face:
the premonitory symptoms of an at
tack of ritching supervened, amid a
choral recitative accompanied by
the rat-tat-tat of the tabor; there was
a spasmodic action of the stomach
a body seemed to ascend through the
gullet-the mouth was filled-was
OK ened-and there dropped out on
the floor large, smooth stone. In
another minute the phenomenon was
repeated; this time the stone being
SO large as to pass out with difficulty
between the teeth. Another and an.
other, and again another followed
till some ten stones of differen,
shapes and sizes, but all smooth, lay
on the floor, weighing in the aggre
gate probably about two pounds


A leathern strap was unrolled and
laid on the ground open to view-a
subduel choral incarnation followed
there was slight but preceptible
nervous twitching motion in the strap
when one Of the performers cried out
"Cover him up! cover him up, or he
will bite us!' placed large wicker
work basket, called tap.h, over it.
and covered it with cloth; then,
seizing a strange-looking musical in
strument, the body of which consist
ed of small dry gourd, he produced
a succession of wild droning notes
not unlike the treble of bagpipe
His companion removed the basket
and in lieu of the leathern strap, there
was an enormous live cobra, a hood
ed snake, with crest erect, dartine
out its double tongue, and swayine
about-a foot of its body from side te
side, the rest being arranged in {
close coil. All drew back theil
chairs in undisguised alarm.


Meanwhile the snake, though evi
IDENTIFY charmed by the music, KEEP,
his bright eyes directed on the move
ments of the party, whom he seemed
to regard as his natural foes. The
woman was the first to attack hel
ancient enemy by slyly attempting
to nip his tail. He Kissed forth his
displeasure and made a dart at hel
hand, but she was too quick for him
With equal success the lad and the
man who was not playing continued
to provoke the reptile for a minute
or two, but he at length bit the lat
ter in the hand. The blood tricklec
slowly from the wound, but the mar
drew from small bag about his per
son what appeared to be small
dark-colored fiat stone, and pressing
it upon the wound left it there, for i
appeared to have adhesive properties
In about two minutes the blood ceas
ed to flow, and the quasi stone drop
ped off. A small basket was ther
put before the snake, into which he
quietly glided, and was hid from sight


The child is seated on the floor
The father and mother simulate :
quarrel; the former takes up ant
brandishes sword, and the child
seeing its mother threatened, yelll
Justify; whereupon the fathers rag,
is directed toward it. But the moth
er, seeing its danger, hastily covers
it with the large basket before used
over which she throws large cloth
nevertheless, the man thrusts hi
sword through it into the basket, anG
makes a lunge or two. Then tht
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, ani
the apparently dead body of the chile
is shown lying face downward. The
mother snatches it up, presses it to
her bosom, and otherwise handles it
and after minute replaces it with
an air of resignation under the baske
seemingly a lifeless corpse. Mean
while the blood has been wiped W
by the other confederates and shor'
incarnation follows, at the end Of
which the basket is again raised, and
10! the child is found seated, quite
unhurt, its laughing face indicating
the satisfaction it is deriving from
the juice of short stick of sugar
cane which it is crushing between its