122 The Hunting Grounds 



when he had buried it, pretended to be in a great 

 rage, and commenced abusing the goddess in not very 

 measured terms, revealing certain antecedents to her 

 memory which, if true, did not speak much in favour 

 of the general morality of the Hindoo divinities. 

 His ire even led him to forget common politeness to 

 the sex, for he struck her repeatedly with his wand, 

 but finished off by promising to break cocoa-nuts in 

 her name, provided she assisted him to please the 

 gentlemen ; and after having effected a reconciliation, 

 he again dug up the seed and showed it to us, with 

 little white germs growing out of one end. 



He again buried it, and recommenced coaxing the 

 image to assist him, promising to sacrifice a cock to 

 her, provided she listened graciously to his prayer, 

 then covering the spot with a basket, to prevent the 

 influence of any evil spirit from interfering with the 

 working of his spell ; in the meantime he showed us 

 some very clever sleight-of-hand tricks with cups and 

 small cloth balls, something like thimble-rig. 



When this was over he removed the basket and 

 showed us a young mangoe-plant growing, it having 

 put forward the two first leaves ; and at our request 

 he dug it up from the ground and showed us the 

 roots with the stone still adhering to them. This he 

 again planted and covered it over with the basket, 

 after which he showed us some very clever juggling 

 with knives and balls. 



When he again uncovered the plant it was covered 



