"In the second act the fair princess enters--she is three times as large as Faust, but bewails his absence in a plaintive voice and departs. Faust enters and calls for a Furio who shall carry him to Mantua. Enter three Furios (witches) who boast their power. 'I can carry you as swiftly as a moor-cock flies,' says one. This is not swift enough for Faust. 'I fly as fast as bullet from a gun,' says the second. The master answers: "'A right good pace, but not enough for Faust.' To the third: 'How fast art thou?' "'As quick as Thought.' "'That will suffice--there's naught so swift as Thought. Bear me to Mantua, to her I love, the princess of my heart!' "The Furio takes Faust on her back, and they fly through the air. The servant makes, as before, critical and sarcastic remarks on what has passed, and the curtain falls. "In the third act the devil persuades Faust to murder his father, so as to inherit his treasures, 'for the old man has a tough life.' In the fourth, maddened by jealousy, he stabs the princess and her supposed lover. The small sarcastic servant takes the murdered pair by the legs, and drags them about, cracking jokes, and giving the corpses cuffs on their ears to bring them again to life. "In the fifth act, the clock strikes eleven. Faust has now filled to the brim the measure of his iniquity. The devil appears, proves to him that it is time to depart; it strikes twelve; the smoke of a fizzling squib and several diabolical fire-crackers fills the air, and Faust is carried away, while the small servant, as satanical and self-possessed as ever, makes his jokes on the folly of Faust--and the curtain falls." This is the true Faust drama of the Middle Ages, with the ante-Shakespearian blending of tragedy and ribald fun. But this same mixture is found to perfection in the early Indian drama--for instance, in "Sakuntala"--and it would be indeed a very curious thing should it be discovered that the gypsies, who were in all ages small actors and showmen of small plays, had brought from the East some rude drama of a sorcerer, who is in the end cheated by his fiend. Such is, in a measure, the plot of the Baital Pachisi or Vikram and the Vampire, which is borrowed from or founded on old traditions, and the gypsies, from their familiarity with magic, and as practical actors, would, in all probability, have a Faust play of some kind, according to the laws of cause and effect. In any case the suggestion may be of value to some investigator. Gypsies in England--that is those "of the old sort"--regard a shoe-string as a kind of amulet or protection. Many think it is unlucky to have one's photograph taken, but no harm can come of it if the one who receives the picture gives the subject a shoe-string or a pair of laces.