He made his way to the low-roofed side parlour, where were assembled a troop of showmen and conjurors. One fellow was busily employed in shaving a baboon, ** which he intended to exhibit as a fairy; and another was rasping the rough chin of a muzzled bear, that bore the operation with exemplary patience, sitting in an arm-chair, dressed in a check waiscoat and trowsers, in his professional character of an Ethiopian savage! * John Backster kept the Mother Red Cap at Holloway in 1667. We are in possession of his very curious and rare Token, on the right side of which is engraved Mother Red Cap holding a Black Jack, with his initials of “J. B. His Half Peny:* and on the reverse, “John Backster, att-the Mother Read-Capp in hollway, 1667.” ** The baboon and the monkey were popular drolls in ancient times. The following lines occur in a work called “Ayres or Phantasticke Sprites for three Voices,” published by Thomas Weelkes, “Batchelar of Musicke,” 1608. “The ape, the monkey, and baboon did meet, And breaking of their fast in Friday Street; Two of them sware together solemnly In their three natures was a sympathy. 'Nay,' quoth Baboon, 'I do deny that strain, I have more knavery in me than you twain.' “'Why,' quoth the Ape, 'I have a horse at will In Paris Garden, for to ride on still, And there show trieks.'-- 'Tush,' quoth the Monkey, 'I For better trieks in great men's houses lie.' 'Tush!' quoth Baboon; 'when men do know I come, For sport from town and country they will run.'” A conjuror was looking at a large dragon-fly through a magnifying glass, to see how it would pass off for the great high German higher-flighter; and the proprietor of an aviary was supplying a young blackbird with an artificial comb and wattles of red velvet, to find a customer for him as the great cocky, or olla bird of the desert. A showman was mending the fractured bridge of Mr. Punch's nose, while his stage-manager tried a new tail on the devil. * * In some of the old plays the devil was dressed in a black suit, painted with flames, and made to shine. “Let the devil wear black for me, I'll have a suit of sables,” says Hamlet. In the mysteries and moralities of an earlier date, he was decorated with a hairy dress, like a wild beast.