A strange and repulsive feat is thus described by the Rev. G. Smith, in his recent work on “China.” “Aquei conducted us into a room, where he was sitting with his two wives, handsomely attired, looking from a window on the crowd assembled in the street to witness the performances of a native juggler. The latter, after haranguing the crowd with much animation in the Nanking dialect, (as is usual with actors,) proceeded to one part of the crowd, and took thence a child, apparently five or six years old, who, with struggling resistance, was led into the centre of the circle. The man then, with impassioned gesture, violently threw the child on a wooden stool, and, placing him on his back, flourished over him a large knife; the child all the time sobbing and crying as if from fright. Two or three older men from the crowd approached, with earnest remonstrances against the threatened deed of violence. For a time, he desisted, but, soon after, returning to the child, who was still uttering most pitiable cries, he placed him with his back upwards, and, notwithstanding the violent protests of the seniors, he suddenly dashed the knife into the back of the child’s neck, which it appeared to enter till it had almost divided it from the head; the blood meanwhile flowing copiously from the wound, and streaming to the ground, and over the hands of the man. The struggle of the child grew more and more feeble, and at last altogether ceased. The man then arose, leaving the knife firmly fixed in the child’s neck. Copper cash was then thrown liberally into the ring, for the benefit of the principal actors. These were collected by assistants, all of them viewing the influx of the coins with great delight, and bowing continually to the spectators, and reiterating the words, ‘To seoz,’ ‘Many thanks.’ After a time, the man proceeded towards the corpse, pronounced a few words, took away the knife, and called aloud to the child. Soon there appeared the signs of returning animation. The stiffness of death gradually relaxed, and at last he stood up among the eager crowd, who closed around him, and bountifully rewarded him with cash. The performance was evidently one which excited delight in the bystanders, who, by their continued shouts, showed their approbation of the acting.” It is almost superfluous to add, that the deception consisted in the construction of the blade and the handle of the knife, so that, by making a sawing motion on the throat of the child, a stream of coloured liquid, resembling blood, is pumped out; a little acting on the part of the performer and the child is amply sufficient for all the rest. [Illustration]