1870.] 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
387 
Jugglers in India,. 
BY "CARLETON." 
One morning when I was in India I heard the beating of 
a drum and the squeaking of a flageolet under my window. 
It was not inspiring music. The drummer did not play 
GROUP OF INDIAN JUGGLERS 
with such spirit as some of the hoys played who went 
into the army, and the flageolet had an unpleasant squeak 
to it. I was too weary with traveling and too tired of 
sight-seeing to look out to see what was going on. Be- 
sides it was a very hot day, and the mercury in the ther- 
mometer was up to one hundred and ten in the shade. 
I had my coat, vest, stockings, and shoes off, and was 
lying on a couch with apunka going backward and for- 
ward a few inches above my face. Do you ask what a 
punka is ?— It is a great fan. India is a very warm coun- 
try in summer, and the Europeans and few Americans 
who live there are obliged to resort to many expedients 
to keep cool. The Hindoos being natives of the country, 
can bear the hent ; but foreigners from cooler climes wilt 
like a cabbage plant after being transplanted on a hot 
June morning. One of their contrivances for keeping 
cool is the punka, or fan. It is a heavy frame covered 
with cotton cloth and suspended by ropes from the ceil- 
ing, so that it can be swung just over your bed when 
you are asleep, or above the table when you are at din- 
ner, or a little above your head when you arc writing or 
reading. All Europeans living in India have punkas in 
their houses, — in bed-rooms, parlors, dining-rooms, and 
in thoir stores. When you go to church on Sunday you 
will see one swinging backward and forward over the 
minister's head while he is preaching; another over the 
singers, and a dozen over the heads of the people. They 
are kept in motion by Hindoo boys who stand or sit out- 
side of the house, nnd who keep pulling a cord that goes 
through a hole in the wall, and is attached lo a frame of 
the punka. There nro two pullers to each punka who 
take turns through the day and night. Another con- 
trivance is a fanning mill, placed outside of the house 
under the piazza, with a long spout entering a window. 
Two men take turns at lite crank blowing wind into the 
building. If they did not raise the wind in some way it 
would be almost impossible for a foreigner to live there 
during the hot months of the year. The punka was going 
over my head and the puller was keeping time with the 
drummer when my Hindoo landlord, with a great white 
turban on his head nearly as large as a bushel basket, 
looked into my room and said, "Don't you want to sec 
the jugglers?"— 41 Certainly." — I had heard a great deal 
about them and wanted to see them very much, and went 
out and sat upon the 
veranda while the 
jugglers went through 
their performances. 
There were three or 
four persons in the 
party who all made a 
low bow and then eat 
down on the ground. 
They were snake 
charmers as well as 
jugglers. They sat in 
a row, one beating the 
drum, another playing 
the flageolet, while a 
third had an anaconda 
coiled round one arm, 
and around his neck. 
The anaconda was 
about twelve feetlong, 
and its wide, fiat head 
was raised two or 
three feet above that 
of the Hindoo. It 
opened its mouth, ran 
out its tongue, and 
flashed its eyes and 
twisted its head about 
in such a snaky way 
that I did not like the 
look of him at all. A 
fourth had a large, 
greenish snake wound 
round his arm. One 
of the charmers made 
alow, clucking sound, 
and the slimy crea- 
ture unwound himself, 
crawled down to the 
ground and started for 
the veranda to make 
our acquaintance. 
"When he was almost 
up to our feet, the 
charmer made a differ- 
ent cluck, and the 
snake, after giving a 
hiss and running out 
its red-forked tongue, 
and flashing its fiery 
eyes, went back and 
coiled himself once 
more around the fel- 
low's arm. There were 
two, large, earthen jars upon the ground and now as the 
charmer made another cluck, two 'cobras raised their 
heads above one of the vessels. The bite of the cobra 
is very deadly. The poison strikes instantly through the 
s}-stcm, paralyzes it, and brings on death very quickly. 
The charmer made a whispering noise and they came 
creeping over the side of the jar and wound themselves 
in coils upon the ground just as a sailor coils a rope upon 
the deck of the ship. There they were with their heads 
nearly a foot above the center of the coil, waving them 
backward and forward with their mouths wide open, and 
the two sharp fangs in their upper jaw exposed, their 
eyes flashing and the.tr tongues in motion. Cobra do 
Capella is a Portuguese word, meaning hooded snake, and 
it is sometimes called the "hooded snake," because it 
has a sort of hood upon its head. The charmer struck 
at them with his fingers, and they struck back again. 
When they are enraged they show their anger by pulling 
up their hoods, by hissing, flashing their eyes, and strik- 
ing at every thing near them. As the charmer continued 
to plague them they became very wrathful. How their 
eyes flashed I How their tongues went 1 And what ft 
hissing they made 1 They seemed angry enough to 
strike their tormentor dead. They tire very slow mo- 
tioned, and as thero was no danger that they would get 
at us, we sat and watched them with composure ; besides 
we knew that the charmers had them under perfect con- 
trol ; for when they were as angry AS they could be, he 
gave ft low whistle which calmed them in a moment and 
sent them back into the jar. Then the charmer put Ins 
hand into another vessel and took out a dozen or more 
groat Bcorpions. Their sting causes excrutiatmg pain — 
far worse than thai of hornets. These were as large as 
some of the crabs that live along our Ocean shores, and 
were ugly looking creatures; but ho handled them as calm- 
ly as if they were canary birds, or white mice, or any 
other harmless thing. He hung them upon his ears, 
upon his bare arms as if they were bracelets, and the 
creatures never thought of harming him. It was wonder- 
ful to see the power of these charmers over such venom- 
ous creatures. There are some men in the world who 
are endowed by nature with remarkable power over the 
lower order of creation. 
But these jugglers could do some very clever tricks- 
some that would puzzle you completely. They have one 
trick that the sleight of hand performers in this country 
never have been able to imitate. It is called the mango 
trick. I did not sec it, but other men have witnessed the 
performance and I cannot doubt their word. The mango 
is a very delicious fruit, about the size of a Bartlett pear, 
with a flavor like that of the strawberry. It grows on a 
small tree. The juggler first smooths a place on the 
ground, places a basket over it and covers it with a cloth. 
Then he sits down beside it, reaches his arms under the 
basket, moves them slowly, as if working with his hands, 
singing a low song. After a while he raises the basket 
and you see a mango plant ten or twelve inches high, 
growing where a few moments before you saw only 
smooth ground ! You think, perhaps, that he had the 
plant in the basket and set it out ; but if you had exam- 
ined the basket or the cloth you would have found no 
plant concealed. He puts the basket over the plant 
again, sits down once more and waits for the plant to 
grow. Iu a few moments he raises the covering a second 
time and you see a plant two feet high ! Again, he covers 
it, waits awhile to have it grow, and at the third raising 
you will sec a ripe mango on the plaut. He will present 
it to you and you can assure yourself by eating it that it 
is not a make believe, but genuine fruit ! 
Do you ask how it is done ? I have not the least idea. 
Some mouths ago the editor of the American, Agricultu- 
rist showed you how conjurors do some of their puzzling 
feats, but this mango trick of the East-India jugglers 
beats all others. Of course they do not make a plaut 
grow there ; it is only a trick; but the deception is so 
perfect that it seems to be a reality. If they could pro- 
duce plants in that way they could beat nature ; for it 
takes weeks and months for nature to grow a tomato 
plant or a cabbage, and years to produce a mango tree. 
If they could do it in reality it would be worth while to 
employ a few of them to raise crops when the crops were 
likely to fail; but there is nothing real in what they do. 
But nature beats these jugglers at their own game. 
The cleverest sleight-of-hand performer in the world 
cannot do what nature is doing right before our eyes all 
the time— doing a million things more marvelous than 
the mango trick. Nature has no tricks; her perform- 
ances are all real. The more we think it over the 
more we shall see that while the jugglers of the East are 
masters in the art of deception, Nature, on the other hand, 
is a more wonderful performer ; and that all of her opera- 
tions arc real and worthy of our study and admiration. 
No. 393. Illustrated Feints.— Having an agricultural ap- 
plication. 
No. SW. Illustrated fiebus.—A well known proverb. 
