1809.] 
observed to sprout up from the spot, 
which, in the course of an hour, grew 
the height of four or five feet, with an 
exuberant foliage, and several green 
mangoes, which we were requested to 
pluck and taste; the process was cer- 
tainly very adroitly managed, and ex- 
cited a considerable degree of pleasure 
and surprise. The whole tribe of slight-of- 
hand men in Europe are mere bunglers, 
when compared with the jugglers of In- 
dia; their deceptions are so admirably 
executed, and some of their performances 
of such a strange nature, that the igno- 
rant and superstitious natives, believing 
as they do all the enchantments de- 
scribed in such books as the Arabian 
Nights Entertainmenc, may well ascribe 
to them necromantic powers. Even some 
pious Roman catholic missionaries have 
gravely asserted, that the jugglers on the 
coast of Coromandel had dealings with 
the devil, as their feats were beyond the 
reach of human power. Without subscri- 
bing to the opinions of those reverend fa- 
thers, I must confess, that many-of their 
actions are very wonderful, and one of 
them in particular has been pronounced 
by surgeons, eminently skilled in the ana- 
tomy of the human body, to be impossi- 
ble. _What I allude to is, the circum- 
stance of a man thrusting a sword down 
his own throat, up to the hilt, without re- - 
ceiving any injery. With all due submis. 
sion to these learned anatomists, vho 
decide so dogmatically on the impossibi- 
lity of the thing, I must beg to state, 
that I have seen it performed by the Pan- 
darums, at Madras, above a dozen times; 
and [ doubt not, but there are hundreds 
of people in England, who have seen it 
also; there was no deception, no trick 
whatever, but an absolute deglutition of 
the blade of a sword, formed like a cut 
and thrust, but blunt at the point and 
edges, I examined it minutely, and 
found it to be a real and substantial piece 
of cold iron; the man threw his head 
back, so as to bring the passage of the 
throat in a straight line with the stomach, 
he then took the sword in both his hands, 
and inserted it with great care, until the 
whole was engulphed, and the hilt only 
remained out of his mouth. I once saw 
it performed before several gentlemen, 
among whom was the surgeon of an In- 
diaman, then at ancher in Madras roads ; 
he was very sceptical on the subject, un- 
til it was fairly brought to issue, when 
the reality of the circumstance excited 
his extreme astonishment ; he desired the 
man to repeat the operation, and when 
Montury Mac, No, 191, 
Narrative of a recent Tour in India. 373 
at length all his doubts were removed, 
he made the Pandarum a proposal, to go 
with him to Europe, in consideration of 
which, he would give him *one thousand 
pagodas on the spot, alike sum on his 
arrival in England, with his expenses 
there, and other advantages. The tenth 
part of this.sum would nave been a for- 
tune to the man, and for that amount he 
would have attended him all luis life, in 
any part of the peninsula of India; but 
his cast was an insuperable barrier to his 
going on board a ship, to the great morti- 
fication and disappointment of the doctor. 
T should not have entered into so pro- 
lix a statement of this affair, were I not 
well assured that. there are many people 
in England, particularly professional 
men, who regard the circumstauce as a 
mere travelling romance; and it ts not 
many months since I dined at a friend’s 
house, with a large party, whom [I 
found on my entrance, exercising their 
risible faculties, at the expense of agen- 
tleman, who had arrived a short time 
before from India, and entertained them 
with an account of what he had seen in 
that country; they swallowed sundry re- 
lations of dancing .elephants, musical 
snakes, flying foxes, and other strange 
things, but they could not swallow the 
sword; no, that stuck in their throats, ~ 
and occasioned a tickling which brought 
on the risibility [ observed, on my first 
entrance. The gentleman, understand- 
ing that I had been in-India, appealed to 
me for the trath of his narration. I 
confirmed it, without hesitation; but 
some of the company did not seein to be 
convinced, and the gentleman has since 
acquired the nick-name, of the sword- 
eater. I shall dismiss the subject with 
observing, that there are many circum- 
stances which occur daily in the streets 
of Calcutta and other towns of India, 
-which would be deemed fabulous by the 
good people of this country ; and, on the 
contrary, the narration of many things 
that are common in the streets of Lon- 
don, would, by the natives of Hindustan, 
be attributed to the fertile tmagination 
of a prolific brain; due credit ought, 
therefore, to be attached to such rela- 
tions, although they do not come within 
the immediate scope of our conceptions. 
On the 24th, we arrived at Patna, the 
capital of Bahar, and experienced the 
most polite and friendly reception at 
*Chalees.Suttoon, the hospitable man- 
* Four hundred pounds sterling, 
t The Palace of forty pillars. ; 
3B sion 
