JUGGLING. 
(hurt, provided lie Infpire tlie air, not tlirough tlie mouth, 
tut the noftrils. By this art the rabbi Bar-Cocheba, in 
the reign of the emperor Adrian, made the credulous Jews 
believe that lie was the hoped-for Mefliah ; and two cen¬ 
turies after, the emperor Conftantius was thrown into 
great terror, when Valentinian informed him that he had 
been one of the body-guards breathing out fire and flames 
in the evening. 
For deceptions with fire, the ancients employed alfo 
naphtha, a liquid mineral-oil, which kindles when it only 
approaches a flame. Galen informs us, that a perfon ex¬ 
cited great aftonilhment by extinguishing a candle and 
again lighting it, without any other procefs than holding it 
immediately againft a wall or a ftone. The whole fecret 
of this confilled in having previoufly rubbed over the wall 
■or ftone with fulphur. But, as the author, a few lines 
before, fpeaks of a mixture of fulphurand naphtha, we 
have realbn to think that he alludes to the fame here. 
Plutarch relates how Alexander the Great was aftonilhed 
and delighted with the fecret effefts of naphtha, which were 
exhibited to him at Ecbatana. The fame author, as well 
as Pliny, Galen, and others, had already remarked, that 
the fubftance with which Medea deftroyed Creufa, the 
daughter of Creon, was nothing elfe than this fine oil. 
She fent to the unfortunate princefs a drefs befmeared 
with it, which burft into flames as foon as Ihe approached 
the fire of the altar. The blood of Neflus, in which the 
■drefs of Hercules, which took fire likewife, had been dip¬ 
ped, was undoubtedly naphtha alfo; and this oil mult have 
been always employed when offerings caught fire in an 
imperceptible manner. 
In modern times, perfons who could walk over burning 
coals or red-hot iron, or who could hold them in their 
bands and their teeth, have often excited wonder. In the 
end of the laft centfiry, an Engliftiman, named Richard- 
ion, who, as we are allured, could chew burning coals, 
pour melted lead upon his tongue, fwallow melted glafs, 
6 cc. rendered himfelf very famous by thefe extraordinary 
feats. Laying afide the deception prafitifed on the fpefta- 
tors, the whole of this fecret confifts in rendering the Ikin 
of the Isles of the feet and hands fo callous and infenfi- 
ble, that the nerves under them are fecured from all hurt, 
•in the fame manner as by Ihoes and gloves. Such callo¬ 
sity will be produced if the Ikin is continually comprefled, 
finged, pricked, or injured in any other manner. Thus 
<Io the fingers of the induftrious lempftrefs become horny 
by being frequently pricked ; and the cafe is the fame 
with the hands of fire-workers, and the feet of thofe who 
walk bare-footed over fcorching fand. Mr. ProfelTor 
Beckmann relates the following particulars : “ In the 
month of September, 1765, when I vifited the copper- 
works at Aweftad, one of the workmen, for a little drink- 
money, took fome of the melted copper in his hand, and, 
after Ihowing it to us, threw it againft a wall. He then 
fqueezed the fingers of his horny hand clofe to each other; 
jput it a few minutes under his arm-pit, ,to make it fweat, 
as he faid ; and, taking it again out, drew it over a ladle 
filled with melted copper, fome of which he Ikimmed otf, 
and moved his hand backwards and forwards, very quick¬ 
ly, by way of oftentation. While I was viewing this per¬ 
formance, I remarked a fmell like that of finged horn or 
leather, though his hand was not burnt. The workmen 
at the Swedifh melting-houles Ihowed the fame thing to 
lome travellers in the laft century ; for Regnard law it in 
1681, at the copper-works in Lapland. It is highly pro¬ 
bable, that people who hold in their hands red-hot iron, 
or who walk upon it, as I law done at Amfterdam, but' 
?.t a diftance, make their Ikin callous before, in the like 
planner.^ This may be accomplifhed by frequent moiften- 
ing it with fpirit of vitriol; according to fome, the juice 
of certain plants will produce the fame eifefif ; and we are 
allured by others, that the Ikin mull be very -frequently 
fubbed, for a long time, with oil, by which means, in¬ 
deed, leather alfo will become horny.” Of this art traces 
may be found alfo in the works of the ancients. A f'e£» 
Vql. XL No. 770. 
489 
tival was held annually on Mount SoraiSe, in Etruria, at 
which the Hirpi, who lived not far from Rome, jumped 
through burning coals ; and on this account they were 
indulged with peculiar privileges by the Roman fenate. 
Women alfo, we are told, were accultomed to walk over 
burning coals'at Caftabala, in Cappadocia, near the tem¬ 
ple dedicated to Diana. Servius remarks, from a work of 
Varro now loft, that the Hirpi fruited not fo much to 
their own fanifity as to the care which they had taken to 
prepare their feet for that operation. 
We are not acquainted with every thing that concerns 
the trial by ordeal, when perfons accufed were obliged to 
prove their innocence by holding in their hands red-hot 
iron; but can fcarcely doubt that this alfo was a juggling 
trick of the priefts, which they employed as might bell 
fuit their views. It is well known that this mode of ex¬ 
culpation was allowed only to weak perfons, who were 
unfit to wield arms, and particularly to monks and eccle- 
liaftics, to whom, for the fake of their fecurity, that by 
fingle combat was forbidden. Tlte trial itfelf took place 
in the church entirely under the infpeftion of the clergy; 
mafs was celebrated at the fame time ; the defendant and 
the iron were conlecrated by being fprinkled with holy 
water; the clergy made the iron hot themfelves; and they 
ul'ed all thefe preparatives, as jugglers do many motions, 
only to divert the attention of the fpeftators. It was 
neceflary that the acculed perfons Ihould remain previoufly 
three days and three nights under their immediate care s 
and continue as long after. They covered their hands 
both before and after the proof; fealed and unfealed the 
covering ; the former, as they pretended, to prevent the 
hands from being prepared any-how by art; the latter, to 
fee if they were burnt. Some artificial preparation was 
therefore known, or elfe no precautions would have been 
neceflary. It is highly probable that, during the three 
firft days, the preventative was applied to thole perfons 
whom they v/ilhed to appear innocent; and that the three 
days after the trial were requifite tef let the hands refume 
their natural ftate. The facred fealing fecured them from 
the examination of prefumptuous unbelievers; for, to de¬ 
termine whether the hands were burnt, the three laft days 
were certainly not wanted. When the ordeal was abo- 
lilhed, and this art rendered ufelefs, the clergy no longer 
kept it a fecret. In the thirteenth century an account of 
it was publilhed by Albertus Magnus, a Dominican 
monk. If his receipt be genuine, it feeing to have con¬ 
futed rather in covering the hands with a kind of pafte 
than in hardening them. The fap of the althdca (marlh- 
mallow), the fiimy feeds of the flea-bane, which are ftili 
ufed for ltiffening by the hat-makers and lilk-vveavers, to¬ 
gether with the white of an egg, were employed to make 
the pafte adhere; and by theie means the hands were as 
fafe as if they had been fecured by gloves. The ufe of 
this juggling trick is very old, and may be traced back to 
a pagan origin. In the Antigone of Sophocles, the guards 
placed over the body of Polynices, which had been bu¬ 
ried contrary to the orders of Creon, offered, in order to 
prove their innocence, to fubmit to any trial : “We 
will,” faid they, “take up red-hot iron in our hands, or 
walkthrough fire.” 
The exhibition of balls and cups, which is often men¬ 
tioned in the works of the ancients, as the molt common, 
arts of jugglers, is of great antiquity. It confifts in con¬ 
veying Speedily, and with great dexterity,- while the per¬ 
former endeavours by various motions and cant phrafes 
to divert the attention of the fimple Ipeilators from ob- 
•ferving his movements too narrowly, ie-veral light ballsy 
according to-the pleafure of any perfon in companjq un¬ 
der one or more cups; removing them fometimes from 
•the whole ; and conveying them-again back in an imper¬ 
ceptible manner. See the article Legerdemain. 
Figures or puppets, which appear to move of them¬ 
felves, were employed formerly to work miracles ; but 
they could hardly be ufed for that purpole at prefent in 
aDy catholic country of Europe, though they Hill ferve to 
6 I am u fe 
v ‘ * - 
