INDIAN MAGIC.

Auckland Star, Volume LXI, Issue 229, 27 September 1930, Page 3 (Supplement)

INDIAN MAGIC.

In this trick an Indian fakir lias a mango seed which he puts in a mound of earth,, covers it with a cloth, and each time the cloth is removed the tree i-s a few inches higher. The . native comes forward holding a little tin of water, and an earthen pot of dry sand. He also has mango seeds, and a large cloth over his arm. With the water and sand he proceeds to make a mud pile, moulding them together into a pyramid shape. The mango seed is then dropped into this mound: it is then covered with the piece of cloth. He places his bare hands and arms under the cloth, and works the ground for a, few minutes. The hands are then brought out, and the fakir passes his hands over the top of the cloth, uttering weird noises, while an assistant beats a tom-tom. After this irocs 011 for three or four minutes the native lifts the cloth from the mound, and a couple of tiny leaves are seen above the earth. To assure you that the seed has begun to grow, the fakir will dig it out, and show you the roots and shoots sprouting from the seed. He replaces the sprouting seed in the earth, covers it again with the cloth, digs around it with bis fingers, and then .removes the cloth. The tree is now three or four inches high. Over goes the cloth again, more weird noises, and the tree is a few inches higher still. These steps are repeated until the tree may be as high, as two feet. After having this trick, or any other explained, you might think you would no longer lie interested in seeing it performed. But this view is not altogether-, correct. Even if you knowhow Bratlman'makes centuries or Grimmett gets all the side out, you still would walk miles to see them play. Most of you know how engines work, yet boys are never tired of studying them. "So do not think that if you know how anything is ' done you will never go to see an expert doing it. Well, here is the" explanation:— The leaves and twigs of the mango tree are very tough and pliable, which enables them to be packed into a small space without being damaged. When they are let out of the small space they soon stretch out to their former shape and appearance. This property of the mango tree is the key to the trick. The mango seed which is placed in the earth is specially prepared by the fakir. He splits the seed, scc/ops out the contents, dries it, then folds up the shoot of a mango tree and puts it ins-ide. As the seed is about 2in by 1-Hn there is a good deal more 6pace inside it than you may have thought. In folding the leaf it is watered, and this keeps it from becoming- creased very much. When the fakir places his hands upon the cloth the first time he takes out about an inch or two of the folded tree, or he may remove the whole of the tree from the seed, then bank the earth around it, leaving a few inches showing. If the conjurer wishes to show sprouting roots he must place these roots in the seed before hand. Each time he covers the plant and gets to

work with his bands a little more of the tree is brought to light, either from the ground or the seed. Yes, you may say, that explains how a small tree could be shown, but what about a tree two feet high? Here one of the fakir's assistants lends a little aid. One of 'them holds the cloth each time it is removed from the tree. Of course the conjurer vigorously cliakes the cloth for the first few times when he receives it back. But each time the shake gets weaker, so that by the time the tree is full grown he scarcely shakes it at all. With a quick movement the assistant changes the cloths at a secret signal from the fakir; this new cloth is double, and contains a larger rolled up mango shoot. This cloth is -exchanged for the original one when the eyes of the astonished spectators arc staring at the growing tree. .