HINDOO MAGIC EXPLAINED.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume VI, Issue 37, 13 September 1890, Page 3

HINDOO MAGIC EXPLAINED.

BY

A PROFESSOR.

I HAVE spent fifteen years of my life in India and the far East giving performances in conjuring tricks and studying the wonderful tricks of the Hindoo jugglers. With very few exceptions I have always been aide to discover the secret of such tricks as 1 have < seen, but several of them were performed so dexterously that even with all my knowledge of the art and my observation 1 have been as completely battled at the veriest novice among the spectators. Some of these tricks seem much more wonderful than they really are after they are explained, and I have endeavoured in this article to make a few of them plain. THE DUCK TRICK. In 1878 I was stopping in the city of Allahabad, near the centre of India on the Indian Peninsula Railway, giving performances in the Railway' Iheatie. Every'day T a party of native jugglers were in the habit of visiting our hotel and exhibiting their stall on the plaza in front of the building. One day I was particularly attracted by an old Hindoo, his son and daughter, who squatted down on the ground and waited for the crowd of sightseers to gather' around. They did not have long to wait. When enough spectators had come to make the performance profitable, the old fellow drew from the bag that all Indian jugglers used to convey their • properties ’ in a small earthenware jar; filled with muddy water. He first sprinkled a few drops of water on tire ground and then placed the jar upon three small stones, which he also took from the hag. He then produced a small china duck and gave it to me for inspection. 1 found nothing noticeable about it. He asked me to put it in the water. 1 did so, and it immedi ately sank to the bottom. He next drew from the bag a small tom-tom, a little musical instrument that emits a drumming sound when the handle is turned, and began waving it around the jar. Instantly the duck rose to the surface. He told me to touch it, I tried to do so, when the bird a ,r ain disappeared, to reappear again and again at the juggler’s will. I must confess that I was mystified. There was apparently no cause for the strange actions of the little bird. It was only after the third or fourth visit of the conjurer that I discovered the secret of the trick. It was a particularly bright, sunny day, and I had chosen a place among the spectators slightly nearer than the others were allowed. I was behind the scenes, as it were. While attentively watching the trick I noticed in the sunshine the sparkle of a long hair that extended from the tom-tom to the bottom of the jar. The moment I saw this I divined the juggler’s secret, and I afterwards proved that my theory was correct. The jar already contained a china duck precisely similar to tlie one I had examined, save that it was buoyant. Attached to the breast of this duck was the hair. This hair came through a tiny hole in the bottom of the jar. The water was sprinkled on the ground to conceal any leakage. When the jar was placed upon the ground the hair was fastened so that the duck could not rise to the surface.

As the juggler picked up his tom-tom it was an easy matter for him to fasten the end of the hair to it by means of a bit of wax. After this was arranged you can see how easily he was able to make this counterfeit duck bob up and down at the word of command. My sketch, which 1 made at the time, will give a very clear idea of how the trick was The same party of conjurers had no sooner finished with the duck trick than they puzzled me with another clever illusion. The young woman produced a plate on m hich there were six little heaps of sugar, each having a different colour. She took a spoon and, dipping up the sugar, swallowed it, and showed her mouth quite empty. 1 hen she asked me what kind of sugarl wanted. I said led. \V hereupon she blew into my hand a little pile of red sugar, perfectly dry and similar in quantity to the red sugar I had seen her swallow. It was some time before I discovered how the trick was done. One day I hit upon it through her carelessness. I noticed that with the sugar she blew into my hand a small bit of thin paste, such as druggists use for capsules in which they put noxious drugs. This set me to thinking, and I was not long in verifying my suspicions. She actually did swallow the sugar, but she kept concealed within her cheeks six capsules filled with vari-coloured sugar. These she arranged in her mouth in regular order, and when I called for blue or white or black or red sugar she knew precisely where to find it, and with her tongue she brought rt to her teeth, broke the end of it and blew out the conteThere was one other trick these jugglers performed that I was unable to see through without explanation. I therefore ■ ’■ave the conjuror a rupee and he disclosed his secret. It is a very' pretty trick. This is the illusion : the young man placed before me an ordinary' basin of clean water. He then took a pint measure of dry sand from a box and threw it in the water. Then he plunged his hand into the fluid and drew out a handful of perfectly dry Sand which he poured into the palm of my hand for inspection. It was as dry as thoiv r h it had just come out of an oven. I his is the seeiet of the trick : the young man had first prepared the sand by bathing it in boiling paraffine. This coated each grain with a thin coating of wax that was absolutely invisible to the eye and not noticeable to the touch. Of course the moment this waxed sand eame from the water it was dry, as the water could be squeezed out of it as it is wrung from a

sponge. The trick that I am about to describe to you is one that conies under the head I warned you about in my intioduction. I first saw it in Bombay in the Spring of 1879, and it was performed by the most skilful conjurer 1 ever saw in all India. Even after I had learned the secret of the illusion I could not help admiring its ingenuity and the dexterity with which it was performed. The jugglerand his two comrades chose a spot before the Prince of M ales statue on the plaza. He first laid his bag down on the hard ground ami then drew from it a large bandanna handkerchief. I Jigging a small hole in the ground with his finger he buried a pine apple seed, and over this he placed his handkerchief. He carefully smoothed out the lawn of the handkerchief, rub-

bing swiftly from left to right. After this mameuvre was ended he made several passes with his arm over the handkerchief, while his comrades beat industriously upon their drums and blew upon their pipes. Suddenly, to my surprise, 1 saw the hankerchief begin to slowly rise in the centre and gently sway from side to side as though a plant were really sprouting from the seed to life underneath the cloth. When the handkerchief bail risen like a tent to a height of about twelve inches, the conjurer stopped his incantations ami cautiously lifted up the lefthand corner of the cover and peered beneath it. Then plunging both hands underneath to the accompaniment of loud and discordant music he threw aside the handkerchief and displayed a full-grown pineapple plant. This is the way he did the trick, as he afterwards admitted to me. In smoothing the cloth he reached into the bag and whisked under cover a hooded cobra snake. The moment the reptile was laid down it began to coil itself. That made the handkerchief rise. When it had reached its full height, its angry hissing meanwhile being diowned by the music of the assistant jugglers, the pert< rmer looked under the handkerchief, taking care to draw the corner close to the mouth of the bag. Then he adroitly whisked a hollow pineapple from the bag under the cloth. It was then the work of a minute only to force the snake into the apple, close the aperture and the trick was done. Here are too very neat and very simple little tricks 1 saw in Allahabad the same year which have frequently been performed in England and America, but 1 do not believe they have ever been explained before. They are so easily done when once one knows how that any boy with a knack at mechanical work can duplicate them, and when they are skilfully done they are wonderfully puzzling. The Hist is the ‘ three-ball trick.’ The performer takes a bow with two strings on it about two inches apart. Between these strings he puts three balls, and then, whirling the bow around his head, one of the balls slowly rises to the top, followed by the others. After a while, by diminishing the speed of the revolutions, the performer causes one of the balls to drop to the bottom of the bow ; one remains in the centre and the ocher stays at the top. Of course any boy will understand that the first movement of the balls to the top of the bow is caused by centrifugal force. But why should one ball drop to the bottom and the other remain in the centre? I will tell you. The balls are of different weights. The lightest of comse goes to the top, the next lightest stops in the middle and the heaviest drops to the bottom. The illustration will show you how the performer stands and will also aid you in constructing a bow. The other trick is called the ‘ rolling egg and sword trick. I will use in my illustration and explanation a cane made of soft wood instead of a sword. The effect is almost as bewildering and the apparatus is made more easily. The performer apparently makes an egg roll end over end up and down the edge of a cane. In reality he drives two needles into the side of the cane at each end of it. From these he strings two threads, making an invisible trough for the e<*g to roll in similar precisely to the two strings on the bow in the previous trick. (>f course when this has been done the egg with little practice will roll either way, up or down, as the performer raises or lowers the point of the cane. \\ hen a sword is used the four needles are neatly soldered to the blade.