288 ROUGHING IT IN SOUTHERN INDIA 



in the dark, out of sight, alike in the vegetable and animal 

 kingdoms ; thus the seed germinates and the embryo takes 

 shape. So that the mango ' trick ' is not a trick ; it is but 

 a hurrying on of Nature's own methods through a know- 

 ledge of her laws. Whence that knowledge is derived I 

 was not told, and I do not know, though the Initiate knows, 

 and so does the wandering juggler ; but ever afterwards, 

 when that ' trick ' was done before me — which was often, 

 for it was the one I liked best — it gave me a sense of awe 

 far above mere wonderment. 



Two other things that particular juggler did may sound 

 simpler, though we could scarcely believe our eyes when we 

 saw them done. First, he took out of his basket a packet 

 wrapped in a piece of coarse cloth, which he unwound very 

 carefully, and showed us about fourteen brightly coloured 

 powders folded in separate papers ; next he asked for a 

 large plate, and a dinner plate was brought. Then : — 



( 1) He shook the powders out in little distinct heaps round 



the edge of the plate. 



(2) He swept off each heap into a paper and tipped it 



into his mouth. 



(3) He spat the powders out again — still as powders, there 



was no change in their condition — in separate 

 colours in a circle round the plate exactly as they 

 were before. 



(4) He put the powders back into their papers, and 



wrapped all together in the cloth to be packed up. 



Then just by the way, as it seemed, he drew an end of 

 coloured cotton out of his mouth, and went on drawing it 

 yard upon yard, till it lay in quite a pile on his lap. Very 

 pretty it was, and of all tints, one merging into another most 

 delicately — such cotton as none of us had ever seen before. 

 When the other end finally appeared the juggler wound it 

 all round a twist of paper, and pushed it into the basket 



