AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST, 
387 
1870.] 
TOYS <k (SdDWMEMo 
Jugglcfs in India. 
BY “ G'ARLETON.” 
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 
with such spirit as some of the boys 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 iiot 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 oil', and was 
lying on a couch with a punka 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 heat; 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 are writing or 
reading. All Europeans living in India have punkas in 
their houses,—in bed-rooms, parlors, dining-rooms, and 
in their 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, and who keep pulling a cord that goes 
through a hole in the wall, and is attached to a frame of 
the punka. There are 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 the 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 groat white 
turban on his head nearly as large as a bushel basket, 
looked into my room and said, “Don’t you want to see 
the jugglers?”—“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 sat 
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 feet long, 
and its wide, flat 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 
a low, 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 
system, 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 their tongues in motion. Cobra de 
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 puffing 
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 ! now their tongues went! And what a 
hissing they made I They seemed angry enough to 
strike their tormentor dead. They are -very slow mo¬ 
tioned, and as there 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 a low whistle which calmed them in a moment and 
sent them back into the jar. Then the charmer put his 
hand into another vessel and took out a dozen or more 
great scorpions. Their sting causes excrutiating pain— 
far worse than that of hornets. These were as large as 
some of the crabs that live along our Ocean shores, and 
were ugly looking creatures; but he handled them as calm- 
GR0TJP OF INDIAN JUGGLERS. 
iy as if they were canary birds, or white mice, or any 
other harmless tiling. Ho hung them upon his cars, 
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 tho 
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 qountry 
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. Tho mango 
is a very delicious fruit, about the size of a Bartlett pear, 
with a flavor like that of tho 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 tho 
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 1 Ton think, perhaps, that lie had the 
plant in the basket and sot 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 tho plant to 
grow. In a few moments he raises tho 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 
yon will sec a ripe mango on the plant. 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 months ago tho editor of tho American Agricultu¬ 
rist showed you how conjurors do some of their puzzling 
feats, but this mango trick of tho East-India jugglers 
beats all others. Of course they do not make a plant 
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 wore 
likely to fail; but there is nothing'rcal 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 arc all real. The more we think it over the 
more we shall see that while tho 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 Rebus— Having an agricultural ap¬ 
plication. 
No, 394. Illustrated Rebus .—A well known proverb. 
