ANOTHER Oriental trick of which much was heard consisted of a rope which, when thrown in the air, stiffens itself and in that state is balanced by the performer on his head, shoulders, etc. This is achieved by the use of jointed bamboo rods of which the joints are made to lock, and the whole thing is covered with rope. According to one witness of this, a very small boy climbs up to the top, and the rope is so placed that the sun blinds the onlookers, especially Europeans, and while their attention is directed to the top, the boy slides down the pole or rope and disappears in the crowd.

This seems to me an unlikely explanation, but is the nearest approach we ever could find to the solution, despite our advertised offer of £5,000 a year to any juggler who could perform the trick in London.

Another trick of this class is the "Mango Trick", which is presented by Indian jugglers, but which would not be possible in Britain. It has been done here by the Indian jugglers, and caused only a mild surprise--very different from the stories and descriptions one hears of the trick.

According to travellers' tales of this trick, Bengalee conjurers, having been asked to produce a mulberry tree, planted ten seeds, which in a few minutes produced trees which grew and spread out branches and yielded excellent fruit. In like manner, apple, fig, almond, walnut, and mango trees were produced, and, to crown all, there appeared among the foliage birds of such surprising beauty and colour and shape and melody of song that the world never saw before.

At the close of the operation the foliage, as in the autumn, was seen to put on its varied tints, the trees gradually disappearing into the earth from which they were made to spring.

For the sake of comparison with this fantastic account, here is a description given by Jacolliot, who, having seen the trick performed several times, asked the Fakir Covindasamy to perform it in the judge's room, under what he fondly imagined would be test conditions.

The judge ordered his servant to have a flower-pot filled with earth taken from an ants' hill and to bring some seeds of different sorts.

In less than a quarter of an hour my servant had returned with the articles required. I took them from his hands and dismissed him, not wishing to leave him in communication with Covindasamy. To the latter I handed the flower-pot, filled with a whitish earth which must have been entirely saturated with that milky fluid which the (caria) ants secrete and deposit upon every particle of earth, however small, which they use for building purposes. When the fakir deemed that it was in proper condition, he asked me to give him the seed that I had selected, as well as about a foot and a half of some white cloth. I chose at random a papaw seed from among those which my servant had brought me. Before handing it to him I asked him if he would allow me to mark it. Being answered in the affirmative, I made a slight cut in its outer skin. He then planted the seed in the earth, which was now in the state of liquid mud, thrusting the seven-knotted stick--which, being a sign of his initiation, he never laid aside--into one corner of the vessel and using it as a prop to hold up the piece of muslin which I had just given him. After hiding from sight in this manner the object upon which he was to operate, he sat down upon the floor, stretched both hands horizontally above him, and gradually fell into a deep cataleptic sleep. After two hours of this, during which Jacolliot, took another seat, alternately directing my attention to the course of the Ganges and to the fakir, that I might not be exposed to too direct and steady an influence from him, the fakir awoke. He made signs to me to approach. Moving the muslin that hid the flower-pot, he then pointed out to me a young stalk of papaw. fresh and green, nearly eight inches high. Anticipating my thoughts, he thrust his fingers into the ground, which meanwhile had parted with nearly all its moisture, and, carefully taking up the young plant, he showed me on one of the two cuticles, still adhering to the roots, the cut that I had made two hours previously.

Jacolliot, adds that at least fifteen days are required for the ordinary germination of the papaw seed.

The Indian conjurers who have visited Western lands have disclosed the secrets of this trick, and they invariably carry it further than the above description, repeating the process of covering up the plant until it grows in stages to a full-grown size, bearing fruit.

The initiated know how simple the secrets of this trick are, and how exaggerated the descriptions are that reach us from travellers.

It must, however, be admitted that some of the effects alleged to have been produced even in recent times by the brahminic fakirs of India are quite beyond anything done by the ordinary jugglers. They are difficult to explain by any recognized principles of conjuring-provided, of course, that we accept as strictly accurate the accounts given of the performances by those who say they have witnessed them.

There is, for instance, a trick described at length by Jacolliot, in his book, under the title of "The Leaf Dance", in which fig leaves are impaled by the spectator upon the bamboo rods stuck by him in a wood board and placed at a distance of four yards. The leaves rose and fell on the rods to spell out (presumably in French) the name and date and place of death of a friend who had died in France twenty years before.

One is forced to the conclusion that either Jacolliot, imagined the whole affair, or omitted some important details in his description, or that there were spirits about, although it is difficult to see how a spirit "familiar" of a brahmin fakir could know anything of an unimportant place in France.

Here is a description of tricks performed before his late Majesty King Edward VII when, as Prince of Wales, he visited India in 1875. Great efforts were made to show him the best of the native tricks, and selected troupes of jugglers twice performed before him, on November 11th at Bombay, and at Madras, on December 17th.

At Bombay the juggler and the snake-charmer first showed off all the orthodox tricks of the confraternity. They made clever passes, swallowed and spat out fire, exhibited an inexhaustible water-vessel, and walked on wooden pattens held on by the feet making a vacuum with the sole. Then a juggler suddenly produced two cobras from out of one of the baskets, which had been turned over inside out. In the meantime a mango seed which had been placed in the earth was growing rapidly, and the old fellow, in the interval of snake-charming, exposed a bright green tree, some eight inches high, in the ground, where he had apparently only put in a seed covered with a dirty cloth.

Then another of the famous legerdemain feats of the Indian juggler was executed. A shallow basket about eighteen inches high and three feet broad, with a cover, was placed before the Prince. It was plain there was no deceit: it was a basket and nothing more nor less. It was put on the bare earth before the spectators' eyes. A lad of twelve or so, slight of figure and pleasant of face, with not an article of dress on him save his loincloth and turban, then came out from the group of natives near at hand. The juggler, chattering the while, bound him up hand and foot with strong twine. Then a sack of strong netting was slipped over the lad, who was squeezed down on his haunches so that the cords could be tied securely over his head. The fakir then lifted him from the ground to show how securely the sack was fastened. He put the boy into the basket with great force as it seemed, and appeared to have some difficulty in fitting the lid on the top. When that was done, the old juggler began to talk to the basket. Presently the lid was agitated , the cord and net were jerked out on to the ground. The juggler ran at the basket, jumped on the top, stamped on it in a fury, crashed the lid, took a stick and drove it through the wickerwork. He lifted up the lid. The basket was empty! Then came a voice as of the lad who had been inside it, and lo! up in the branches of one of the trees near by was just such a youth! Certainly a very clever trick, and done with the most simple adjuncts.

The performance at Madras was very similar. The first juggler, Madhir Sahib, put down a small basket. He chattered at it, and lo! there was an egg on the carpet; then he put the basket over the egg, chattered at it, turned it over, and out walked a pretty pigeon. Next Madhir placed another egg under the basket. After incantations, out strutted the first pigeon and another exactly like it.

Madhir Sahib did other things, but none so striking, though peas under a thimble have before now exercised the finest intellects and baffled the greatest ingenuity.

Poolee, who came next, converted himself into a magazine of horrors: took live scorpions out of his mouth, spat out stones as large as plums and swallowed them. Then reversed the process and produced from internal depths large and small nails and string, until there was a pile of his products before the Prince.

The basket trick was then performed by Ghoodoo. A girl was forced into a shallow basket, and Ghoodoo proceeded to inveigh against her as if he were counsel in a divorce case; finally he thrust a sword through the basket and pretended to gloat over the blood on the blade; but when the eyes of the audience were turned on a child whom Ghoodoo seized and pretended to behead, a sharp-eyed lady saw the girl gliding like a shadow out of the basket. Both of these descriptions are culled from the Prince of Wales' Tour--a Diary in India, by W. A. Russell, London, 1877, and can be taken as authentic accounts of actual happenings.

Mr. Clarke gives it as his opinion that Egypt was probably the real birthplace of magic art, and quotes Lane's description given in his book Manners and Customs of the Modern Egyptians, published in 1836. The description is as follows:

Performers of "sleight-of-hand tricks", who are called Höwah (in the singular Häwee) are numerous in Cairo; they generally perform in public places, collecting a ring of spectators round them, from some of whom they receive small voluntary contributions during and after their performances. They are most frequently seen on the occasions of public festivals, and often also at other times by indecent jests and actions they attract as much applause as they do by other means. The Häwee performs a great variety of tricks and generally has two boys to assist him. From a large leather bag he takes out four or five snakes of a largish size. One of these he places on the ground, and makes it erect its head and part of its body; another he puts round the head of one of the boys like a turban, and two more over the boy's neck. He takes them off, opens the boy's mouth, and apparently passes the bolt of a kind of padlock through his cheek and locks it, and then, in appearance, forces an iron spike into the boy's throat-the spike being really pushed into a wooden handle. He also performs another trick of the same kind by placing the boy on the ground, putting the edge of a knife upon his nose and knocking the blade until half of its width seems to have entered. The tricks which the Häwee performs alone are, however, more amusing. He draws great quantities of various coloured silks from his mouth, and winds it on his arm; puts cotton in his mouth and blows out fire; takes out of his mouth a great number of round pieces of tin-like dollars; and, in appearance, an earthen pipe-bowl from his nose. Most of their "Sleight of hand" performances are nearly similar to those exhibited of the same class in our own and other countries. Taking a silver finger-ring from one of the bystanders, he will put it into a little box, blow his shell and say 'Efreet!' (change it). He then opens the box and shows in it a different ring; shuts the box again opens it and shows the first ring; shuts it a third time; opens it and shows a melted lump of silver, which he declares to be the ring melted, and offers it to the owner. The latter insists on having his ring in its original state. The Häwee then asks for five or ten faddahs (equivalent to a farthing or halfpenny) to recast it, and, having obtained this, opens the box again and takes out the perfect ring. He next takes a larger covered box, puts the skull-cap of one of his boys in it, blows his shell, opens the box, and out comes a rabbit--the cap seems to have gone. He puts the rabbit in again, covers the box, removes it, and out run two little chickens. These he puts in again, blows his shell, uncovers the box, and shows it full of "fateerehs" (pancakes) and "kunajeh" (which resembles vermicelli). He tells his boys to eat its contents. They refuse to do it without honey, so he then takes a small jug, turns it upside down to show it is empty and blows his shell, then hands the jug full of honey. The boys, having eaten, ask for water to wash their hands. The Häwee takes the same jug and hands it filled with water in the same manner. He takes the box again and asks for the cup, blows his shell, uncovers the box, and pours out from it into the boy's lap (the lower part of his shirt held up) four or five small snakes. The boy, in apparent fright, throws them down and demands his cap. The Háwee puts the snakes back into the box, blows his shell, uncovers the box, and takes out the cap. Another of his common tricks is to put a number of slips of white paper into a tinned copper vessel, a "tisht" (or jar) of a seller of sherbet, and take them out dyed various colours. He pours water into the same vessel, puts in a piece of linen, then gives to the spectators to drink some of the contents of the vessel changed to sherbet of sugar. Sometimes he apparently cuts in two a muslin shawl, or burns it in the middle, and then restores it whole. Often he strips himself of all his clothes, except his drawers, and tells two persons to bind him hand and feet and put him in a sack. This done, he asks for a piastre (about 2½d.), and someone tells him he shall have it if he puts out his hand and takes it. He puts out his hand free, draws it back, is then taken out of the sack, bound as at first he is put in; again comes out unbound, handing to the spectators a small tray on which are four or five little plates filled with various eatables. If the performance be at night, several small lighted candles are placed around, and the spectators eat the food. There is another class of juggler in Cairo, called Keeyem (or in the singular Keiyim). In most of his performances the Keiyim, has an assistant. In one, for instance, the latter places upon the ground twenty-nine small pieces of stone. He sits upon the ground and these are arranged before him, the Keiyim having gone a few yards distance from him. This assistant desires one of the spectators to place a piece of money under one of the bits of stone. This being done, he calls back the Keiyini and informs him a piece of money has been hidden and asks him to point out where it is; which the conjurer immediately does. The secret of this trick is very simple. The twenty-nine pieces of stone represent the letters of the Arabic alphabet, and the person who desires the Keiyim to show where the money is concealed commences his address to the latter with the letter represented by the stone which covers the coin. In the same manner, or by means of signs made by the assistant, the Keiyim is enabled to tell the name of any person present, or the words of a song that has been repeated in his absence, the name of the song having been whispered to his assistant.

Linga-Singh, an Indian conjurer who has been performing in England for some years, presents illusions and tricks mostly of Western origin. He gives a far better performance, to my mind, than any other Indian conjurer I have seen.

Narck Shah also gives a splendid performance under the name of Yoga. He has a novel version of the basket trick, using a huge brass bowl instead of the usual bucket.