MARVELLOUS JUGGLERY.

Samoa Times and South Sea Gazette, Issue 3, 20 October 1877, Page 3

MARVELLOUS JUGGLERY.

«. , Thk jugglers of India have for centuries hi !,,., u uoti-d for their remarkable - ;h the mysteries of the "black art." The editor of the " (.'oinmercial Bulletin," ~ travelling in the East, has contribute.! to ,!- that paper some very in! -re-,nig ! ,i~ _,, on ill ■ customs of tlie strange pi . pie lie „. has visited. Under the aluve heading ,„ he tells, in the last issue, his readers that ,j '■ convalescence is a capital time for mild ,t' amusements which will not tire the ,-. languid brain, and we had some jugglers ■ s up almost every day. We never could i- find out their tricks, which are very v marvellous. Of course, everybody has n heard of the basket trick, where n 'small i,. boy gets inside a basket, and the juggler piling! * a sword through and through it, I.ringing it. out reeking with blood, then " hold's up the basket, shows there's i,„- > thing there, and calls the hoy, who can: ■ Lj;|K:,-ii-: !' : out .- i ■ the :■ fi ; f ' spectators. And also of tin-mango trick, J where a seed is placed in the "ground, is covered with a cloth, ami appears as a shrub, growing visibly before one's very •' eyes, and then beats fruit, which ripens s and is edible in five minutes from first '' planting. These fellows have very scanty 1- clothing, and apparantly no apparatus 'i whatever. There are some wiseacres '' who profess to know all about these '' tricks. I never saw tin- disembowelling - and iniinediate healing, if fakirs, in India. " nor men sitting in the air, ' levitated,' as s Madame Biavatsky calls it. lint I have r seen other tricks as surprising, and v ci]!tally unaccountable l.y any art or I L- scieiic.- with which Europeans or—Awww-J ; - cans appeal-to lie acquainted nowadays. >' I have seen a nam throw up into the air :l a number of'halls numbered in succes- -' sioii from one upwards. As each went I up. and there was no deception about 1 their going up, the ball was seen clearly >' in the air, getting smaller and smaller till i it disappeared altogether out of sight. ' When thi-v v.-.-ic all up. twenty or more, ■ the op.-iaior would politely ilsk which > ball you v.ant-d to s.-.-, and' then would ■ ; shout wur. • No. I," ■ N„. 1.",,' and so on. - as instructed l.y tin- spectators, when the ball dom.-inde.l'would bound to bis f, ,-t. I Then I've n them swallow tin I different coloinv.l powders, and tii.-n t throwing back tin-head, wash tie m ,low n f with wat. r, drunk in tia- native fashion f or lu-ass p.',t, held at arm's length from j - the lips, and keep on drinking till thI swolh.-n hod-/ could not hold anot'm-r - droii, and water overllowed IV the

' lips. Theii those fellows, after s.piirtiiig out the water in their mouths, have soat ' out. the thiee powders on to a clean piece • of paper, dry and unmixed. As to tic tliimhle-rie-gcrv of their minor ticks, they are exceedingly expert, hut .-ire ■ probably equalled 'bv manv of our distinguished ■ presti.iigitateiirs' : and don't think any of our | pie are up to This reminds me of tic trick Marco Polo. the great Venetian traveller of earlier times, s p. il.s of having seen at the : Court of Prefer John, in Central Asia, when a I, an was planted, and sprang up i-apidh to.vards the heavers, its siuninit being'lost in '.))•' clouds. t"p this, one iic dec travelled, and then another ai't'-r him, with a drawn sword. In a IV w minutes. ,|,,wn dropped ears, a nose, a j head, and limbs of \,,. I : No. 2 leisurely ~;- i.e. ",:-. ... ;:■.- t n ■ ■ j;,,,! .„(,, ;, i ,\ prescnth calling out for his defunct companion, who the, .upon presents himself, as luge as life, all alive and ki.-king. 1 from the I lining. This i- not a modern trick, bin those I have seen are certainly not less marvellous. Then, too, il is a well authenticated fact that some of these juge-lers. on more tl, n-- occasion in 'recent WW. have SUtl'd-ed themselves to he buried alive, and have I u dugout alive after the lapse of a year."