JUGGLERS OF INDIA. UGGLERS came forward on one occasion to perform publicly in the yard of the barracks of Madras: many hundreds of people, of all kinds, ages, and denominations, including the soldiery of the establishment, assembled to witness the exhibition, and some little temporary arrangements were made that all might hear conveniently. The leader of the jugglers (who were all, of course, natives of Hindostan) requested the commanding officer to place a guard of men around the scene of display-a precaution which was adopted, and proved a very wise one. The floor of the court, be it observed, was composed of sand, firm and well-trodden. On this ground, then, after some preliminary tricks of an inferior kind, one man was left alone with a little girl, the latter seeming about eight or nine years old. Beside them stood a tall narrow basket, perhaps three or four feet high, by little more than a foot in width, and open at the top. No other object, living or inanimate, appeared upon the ground. After a short period spent by the man in conversing with the girl, he seemed to get angry, and began to rail loudly at her neglect of some wish of his; the child attempted to soothe him, but he continued to show an increased degree of irritation as he went on. By degrees he lashed himself into such apparent fury, that the foam actually stood upon his lips; and being naturally of an unprepossessing countenance, he looked to the white spectators at least as like an enraged demon as might be. Finally his wrath at the girl rose seemingly to an uncontrollable height, and he seized her and put her beneath the basket; or rather, turned the open mouth of the basket over her person. She was thus shut entirely up-the turned bottom of the basket closing her in above. Having thus disposed of the child, in spite of her screams and entreaties, the man drew his sword, which was as bright as the surface of a mirror, and he appeared as if about to wreak some further evil on the object of his ire. Af ter some moments, during which he talked to himself and to the enclosed girl, as if justifying his anger, he did actually at length plunge the sword down into the basket, and drew it out dripping with blood, or at least blood-red drops! The child screamed piteously from her prison, but in vain; for the man plunged the weapon again and again into the scene of her confinement. As he did so, the cries of the girl became faint by degrees, and in the end died away altogether. The deed of death was consummated. So, at least, thought most of the horrorstruck persons who witnessed this action. And well it was for the chief performer in it that he requested a guard to be placed; for it required all the exertions of this guard to prevent the aroused soldiery, who believed this to be no trick, but a diabolical butchery, from leaping into the arena and tearing the man to pieces. The excitable Irishmen among the number, in particular, ground their teeth against one another, and uttered language not very complimentary to the juggler. Even the officers, whose better education and experience made them less open to such feelings, grew pale with uneasiness. But observe the issue of all this. When the man seemed to have carried his rage to the last extremity, warned perhaps by the looks of the soldiers that it would be as well to close the exhibition without delay, he raised his bloody sword for a moment before the eyes of the assemblage, and then struck the basket smartly with it. The basket tumbled over on a side; and on the spot which it had covered, in place of the expected corpse of the girl whose last groans had just been heard, there was seen-nothing! vestige of dress, or any other thing to indicate that the girl had ever been there! The amazement of the spectators was unbounded; and it was if possible rendered more intense, when, after the lapse of a few seconds, the identical little girl came bounding from the side of the courtyardfrom among the spectators' feet, it seemed No and clasped the juggler around the knees with every sign of affection, and without the slightest marks of having undergone any injury. We have said the astonishment of the assembly was immeasurable; JUGGLERS OF INDIA. 66 and it might really well be so, seeing that | fruit of the mango meets the astonished Look, but the feat was performed in the centre of a eyes of all the spectators. court, every point of the circumference of touch not," is all this time the juggler's which was crowded with spectators, whose word; and he himself also preserves the eyes were never off the performers for one character of a looker-on. When the fruit instant. As to the notion of a subterra- has arrived at something like a fair growth nean passage, the nature of the ground for such a tree, the originator of this exput that out of the question; and, besides, traordinary vegetation plucks it and hands that nothing of that kind existed, was made it to the spectators. This is the winding plain to all who chose to satisfy themselves up of the charm. The assembled persons on the subject, by looking at the scene of handle the fruit, and see nothing in it the performances when they had closed. Ev- slightest degree different from the ordinaery one was sure that the girl had been ry produce of the mango, elaborated by put below the basket, and that she did not the slow vegetation of months. Our inget out of it in the natural way. But she formant on these points ate a portion of did get out and how? It is impossible the fruit brought forth by this jugglery, to say, though there can be no doubt that and found it to taste exactly ilke the raw it was accomplished by some skilful ma- mango. The whole process now detailed usually occupies about a quarter of an hour, from the planting of the stone to the production of the fruit. Though he gives away the fruit, the performer does not part with the tree. This feat, which is perfectly familiar to all who have been in India, is certainly an extraordinary one, and affords the most effectual evidence of the power of deception to which the race of jugglers has attained. nœuvre. A somewhat similar feat is sometimes performed with animals. A juggler will place a lean dog below one of the baskets, and-presto, pass !-when he lifts it up, you will behold a litter of as fine pups as But most ever whipper-in could desire. people will probably think the tree-trick a more wonderful one than any of these. A juggler, in performing this, chooses either a small spot of earth, of the extent of two or three feet square, and in the open air, or he takes a large flower-pot and fills it with mould for his purpose. Either of the ways will do. Having this small plat of earth before him, and his spectators ranged around at a distance of two or three feet, the juggler shows to the company a mango-stone, or the stone found in the centre of the eastern fruit known by that name, which varies in size from that of an apple upward. This stone the juggler then plants in the earth, at the depth it up. Not of several inches, and covers many minutes elapse until the spectators behold a small green shoot arise from the spot. It increases visibly in height and size every moment, until it attains the alIt then begins to titude of a foot or so. send off branches from the main stem; on the branches leaves begin to appear, bearBuds ing the natural hue of vegetation. next present themselves; the whole affair, meanwhile, assuming the regular aspect, in every particular, of a miniature tree some four feet high. The buds are followed by blossoms, and finally the green The feat of sitting, without seeming support, in the air, is one of the few first-rate Indian tricks which have been performed in Europe; but even this is now held somewhat cheap, the mode of performing it being pretty clearly understood. The feat is performed in this way: In the centre of a ring of spectators, stands the juggler with an assistant. When all is ready for the performance, the assistant holds an ample cloak or awning over the juggler, which covers him completely for the time. In a few minutes this covering is removed, and the juggler is discovered seated cross-legged in the air-unsubstantial air -at the height of a foot or so from the ground. He is in the thin dress of his country, and on one of his arms, which is extended horizontally, in a bent form, and which, as well as the other, has a wide sleeve upon it, a fold of a cloak was negligently thrown; the remainder of the cloak hanging down to, and resting on, the ground. This slight contact of the elbow with the cloak is all that connects the man with terrestrial things. Otherwise, he is totally left in air; and how he the largest ox. But besides its huge bulk, the walrus is very remarkable for the construction of the scull, and the character of its dentition-points in which it differs from any of the larger seals, animals which, in other respects, it nearly resembles. maintains himself there is inexplicable to appearance. But the cloak alluded to seems to be in careless contact with another cloak or portion of attire that rests on the ground further off. Now, it is to be believed that, at the point where the cloak touches the elbow, a spring of a powerful kind passes up the sleeve to the The head of the living walrus is round, arm, and bends down under his body, pla- and, instead of terminating in a snout, precing him probably upon a hoop. The oth-sents two swollen protuberances, forming er end of the spring passes off, and finds a sort of tumid muzzle, divided by a longiits support under the second or further-off tudinal furrow, above which the nostrils cloak. The spring, in all likelihood, can open, as it were, midway between the lips be folded up into divisions, so as to be ea- and eyes. From these protuberances, covsily concealed while the awning is thrown ered with thick wiry bristles, depend two. over the juggler at the close of the per- enormous tusks, which, in conjunction formance, and before he gives liberty to with the bright and sparkling eyes of the the spectators to examine the spot, which animal, give to the physiognomy an exhe usually does. This is the received ex- pression of ferocity which its disposition planation of the feat, but there is some dif- does not warrant. The round form of the ficulty still in understanding the nature of head is not relieved by external ears; a the weight or support which is placed be- small valvular orifice, as in most of the neath the cloak. This must evidently be seals, being all that outwardly denotes the of considerable power to sustain his frame; situation of these organs. It is on the peand how he gets it out of the way, is not culiarities of the scull that the swollen easily seen. The feats are the result of appearance of the muzzle and the situasurprising art, address, or contrivance- tion of the nostrils depend. The two and for such the natives of India certainly tusks, which in situation and character are far excel the whole world. analogous to those of the elephant, are imbedded in enormous alveoli, occupying each side of the muzzle anteriorly, and rising above the level of the scull; so that the scull appears as if concealed behind two large mounds of bone, between which, and at some distance above the mouth, opens the nasal orifice. The tusks have open roots, as have those of the elephant; they are directed downward, curve gently back, and are compressed at the sides. They vary in length from eighteen inches to two feet, and are of a proportionate stoutness. The lower jaw, which is destitute both of incisor and canine teeth, is prolonged and compressed at its anterior angle in order to allow this part to pass between the huge tusks, and advance to the anterior margin of the upper jaw, in which (between the tusks) are two incisors, resembling the molars in form, and which, though implanted in the intermaxillary bone, have by many been regarded as molars. In young individuals there are also between these molar-like incisors two small and pointed teeth, which, however, are soon lost; and indeed so are the other THE WALRUS. HE walrus, or morse, in the general shape of the body and position and structure of the limbs, closely resembles the seal, between which group of animals and the Herbworous Cetacea, namely, the manatee, dugong, &c., it seems to constitute an intervening form. Like the seal, the walrus is clothed with short stiff hair, and its body, of great circumference round the chest, gradually diminishes to the hinder paddles; its proportions, however, are more thick and clumsy. In size this animal equals the largest of the seal-tribe, often attaining to the length of twenty feet, and being ordinarily from twelve to sixteen, with a body superior to that of incisors, for in aged sculls they are sel- | food, as long as the weather is fine, but to dom or never to be found. The molars, hasten to sea on the slightest appearance four on each side above and below, are of rain. The traffic in the oil and skin of short and obliquely truncate cylinders. the walrus have both tended to thin their The tumid appearance of the muzzle, so numbers, and to drive the remnant to othremarkable in the living walrus, depends er places of refuge. The fishermen are then, as is easily seen, upon the enormous accustomed to kill them, during the darkdevelopment of the alveoli, for the recep- ness of the night, by torchlight, by the tion of the roots of the tusks. In propor- glare of which the creatures are bewiltion to the size of the scull, these alveoli dered, and fall an easy prey. are larger than those of the elephant, and far more prominent; and the scull, instead of rising above them, falls back and sinks behind them. The walrus is a native of the polar re- ORIGIN OF AMERICAN ABORIGINES. In as gions, and in many of its habits resembles the seals. It lives in troops, which visit the shore, or extensive fields of ice, as a sort of home, where they rest and where the females produce their young. cending steep icebergs, or the precipitous borders of an ice-bound sea, the walrus uses its tusks with great advantage, and secures itself from slipping by striking their points into the glassy surface, or by lodging them amid the irregularities, and in the fissures or pits of the craggy mass on which it takes its repose. They are also instruments by which the animal tears up the submarine vegetables on which it in a great measure subsists. Its favorite food is said to be the fucus digitatus, a coarse kind of sea-weed growing in great abundance in the latitudes which the animal frequents. To this, fish and other matters of a similar kind are most probably added. As weapons of defence, the tusks of the walrus are very effective; and it is said to use them to great advantage in defending itself from the attacks of the polar bear, next to man, its most formidable enemy. It would appear, indeed, that man has either thinned the numbers of the walrus, or driven the herds to localities seldom visited. Formerly, the walruses used to assemble in almost incredible multitudes in the gulf of St. Lawrence, at the setting in of the spring, and take possession of the Magdalene islands, which they still visit, but in very inconsiderable numbers. As the shores of these islands have a gentle slope, with but few precipitous rocks, they are very accessible; and here the animals are said to remain for many days without HATEVER part of the world America may have been peopled from, the first and most important question is that of the TIME at which that event must have occurred. We find in America more than one hundred languages, which, however similar in structure, differ entirely in their vocabulary or words. This difference must have originated either before or after America was inhabited. The first supposition implies that of America having been settled, not by a few distinct nations, which is very possible, but by more than one hundred distinct tribes, of different origin, and speaking entirely different languages. This supposition is inconsistent with the great similarity, in their physical type and the structure of their languages, between almost all the tribes which inhabited America when discovered by the Europeans. If the prodigious subdivision of languages took place in America, for producing such radical diversity we want the longest time that we are permitted to assume. We can not see any reason that should have prevented those who, after the dispersion of mankind, moved toward the east and northeast, from having reached the extremities of Asia and passed over to America within five hundred years after the flood. However small may have been the number of those first emigrants, an equal number of years would have been more than sufficient to occupy in their own way every part of America. |