suddenly transformed into marble. The countenance was perfectly calm, nor did
she exhibit the slightest distress from her extraordinary exertions.”
The basket-murder trick, to which we have already referred, is as follows:—
The juggler stepping forward, invites your examination of a light wicker basket,
and when you profess yourself satisfied, he places it over a child, about eight
years old, who is perfectly naked. He then asks the child some indifferent
question, and you hear her reply to it from the basket. Question and answer are
repeated frequently, each time in a louder and more impassioned manner, until
the juggler, in a seeming fit of rage, threatens to kill the girl, who vainly
supplicates for mercy.
The dramatic character of the scene is as perfect in its realism as it is horrible.
The man plants his foot furiously on the frail basket, and plunges his sword into
it again and again, while the ears of the spectators are rent and their hearts
touched by the child’s cries of agony. For a moment it is impossible to believe
that you are witnessing a deception, as you listen to the passionate shrieks and
watch the man’s furious face. Blood flows in a stream from the basket, and by
degrees the groans of the victim grow fainter and fainter, until all is hushed in a
silence so intense that you hear your heart beat. You are about to rush on the
murderer, and inflict summary punishment, when he mutters a few cabalistic
words, takes up the basket, and shows you—only a little blood-stained earth;
while the child, you know not how or whence, has come to mingle with the
crowd, and ask for baksheesh.
Two simpler exploits may be recorded:—
Taking a large, wide-mouthed, earthen vessel, filled with water, the conjuror
turns it upside down, and, of course, the contents run out.
He then reverses the jar, which to your amazement is seen to be perfectly full,
while all the earth round about is—dry! The jar is again emptied, and submitted
to the inspection of the spectators. He asks you to fill it to the brim; after which
he reverses it: not a drop of water flows, and yet when you look into it, it is
perfectly empty. At last the conjuror breaks the jar by way of a practical
demonstration of the fact that it is made of common earthenware.
A large basket is produced: the conjuror raises it, and a Pariah dog appears
crouching on the ground. The basket-cover is replaced; and a second
examination shows you a bitch with a litter of seven puppies. A goat, a pig, and