A MYSTERY OF MADRAS.
How many people with an acquaintance with India and the East have seen the calling of tho crows as one of the tricks of the itinerant juggler? A correspondent in The Times gives an interesting account of such an incident, novel even to a collector who had spent many years in tho Indian Civil Service. A snake charmer at a tiny place 30 nSles from Madras—tho benighted Presidency—had been refused permission to do tho usual snake tricks, and then asked if he should call the crows. “Certainly,” said the collector, “for there are none here.” For about ten minutes there was a curious whistling and calling, and then the birds began to come, first in twos and threes, then more and more till the place was black with crows. Tho charmer asked if this was enough, or should he call more crows? Enough, was the answer. Ordered to send them away, ho did, and within five minutes not a crow was in sight. The Indian crow is one of the sights of the country, a nuisance, but valuable as a scavenger, and possessing considerably more cunning than his English brother. The sight of a gun scares them, but they move off to a distance only just out of range.
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Otago Daily Times, Issue 19012, 7 November 1923, Page 8
Word Count
213A MYSTERY OF MADRAS. Otago Daily Times, Issue 19012, 7 November 1923, Page 8
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