ROUGHING IT IN SOUTHERN INDIA 293 



home thrive there in perfection. It will not, therefore, seem 

 strange to speak of a wistaria as growing luxuriantly on the 

 walls and porch of an Indian bungalow. 



When wonder after wonder had been reeled off, Major M. 

 asked the juggler, in Hindustani, if he could do anything in 

 reason that might be proposed by an outsider — by himself, 

 for instance ? Without hesitation the man replied that he 

 could. Looking at the wistaria, Major M. said : ' Then 

 bring that tree off the wall and put it back again.' This 

 he called something in reason ! However, it did not seem 

 to raise a qualm of doubt in the juggler's mind. Not a 

 muscle of his impassive face moved. Having accepted the 

 challenge already, he merely bent his head in token of his 

 readiness to take it up. He had stopped his droning music 

 for a while, but now began it again, accompanying it with 

 chanted words, apparently directed to the object of the 

 incantations — the wistaria. Some two hundred people were 

 present, and one and all declared afterwards that they beheld 

 it detach itself from the supporting lattice, sink gradually 

 to earth, and lie prone for an appreciable space of time ; 

 then lift itself up, and slowly return to its original position, 

 firmly entwined in and out of the woodwork. 



This was so staggering to a belief in things generally 

 that, contrary to rule and tradition, Major M. then and there 

 made the juggler an offer of five hundred rupees (about 

 thirty-two pounds) to reveal to him privately the source 

 of his power. The man said that he was willing to do so, 

 on his part, but that first he must be allowed a word with 

 Major M. ; if after that the offer were repeated he would 

 comply immediately. So the two went away together to 

 a distant part of the grounds. They were gone for a full 

 half-hour, and came back together, the juggler looking 

 nothing different, but the other as if he had heard or 

 experienced some uncanny thing. 



Later on Major M. gave his friends the gist of the inter- 



