CARNIVALS IN MANY LANDS 237 



cummerbund, when one saw that he was a living 

 i skeleton, a mere bag of bones. He began by putting 

 a pot to boil on a wood fire, filling it with water 

 from a gourd. Whilst it was boiling, by way of 

 diversion, he seized the small boy and crammed him 

 into the compartment of the cage next to the tiger, 

 which growled furiously and tried to grab the boy 

 through the wicker-work. Then the conjurer, or 

 shaman, to give him his Eastern title, suddenly 

 drew up the dividing partition, the boy and the beast 

 seeming to face each other, whilst at the same moment 

 he threw a large canvas cover over the cage. In an 

 instant there were terrible screams in an unmistakable 

 child's voice and a most distinct noise like the crunch- 

 ing of bones. The crowd grew terrified, it was so 

 intensely realistic ; women screamed, and some would 

 have rushed to the cage, but they were held back by 

 the men, who all seemed terrorized by the old man's 

 eyes. All this time a hideous din was being kept 

 up by the half-naked ruffians who formed the shaman's 

 following, blowing large horns, five and six feet long, 

 and banging on drums, and, with this .noise still going 

 on, the jhaman jumped into the cart ,and pulled off 

 the cover. The boy had vanished, but the tiger 

 evidently wildly excited lay swishing his tail. Where 

 or how the boy went I have no idea, but in a minute 

 or two afterwards he came pushing his way from out- 

 side the dense ring of people and went and sat down 

 unconcernedly alongside the cart. This trick over, the 

 shaman now turned his attention to the pot. He picked 

 up five or six stones from the ground and dropped 

 them into the boiling water, stirring it round and round 

 with a piece of bamboo. I saw the stones bobbing 



