The Wide World Magazine, Vol. 22, No. 132, March, 1909Various
History
The Wide World Magazine, Vol. 22, No. 132, March, 1909
Various
Adventure stories -- Periodicals; English periodicals; History, Modern -- 20th century -- Periodicals; Voyages and travels -- Periodicals
It is not uncommon, both in China and India, to see conjurers
going about from place to place, reminding one of the peripatetic
scissor-grinders who abound in our own country. All the paraphernalia
with which they perform their many and varied tricks is carried in two
boxes, suspended from the ends of a long pole resting on the shoulder,
and for a very small sum they will give a performance lasting an
hour or so. Besides the common sleight-of-hand tricks, such as the
appearance and disappearance of balls, artificial flowers, jars full
of water, live fish, etc., and the spinning and throwing of crockery,
balls, and knives, there are certain other feats which require more
than mere dexterity of hand. For instance, a sleigh-bell is swallowed,
and can be heard tinkling in the stomach as the "artiste" jumps about.
Then a sword is thrust down the throat, and can be heard to strike
against the bell. The bell, needless to say, is later recovered. But
the special and rather disgusting feat illustrated by the striking
pictures on the opposite page, and performed by a Chinese juggler,
seems to outrival anything else of the kind. It consisted in threading
two snakes up the nostrils and out through the mouth! The conjurer
performed this feat at the house of a WIDE WORLD reader living
near T'ungchou, about fourteen miles from Peking, China. The first
photograph shows him standing behind one of the long round boxes which
contain his outfit. On the top of the box is a basket containing a
number of live snakes, from which he selects two of the smoother
and more docile ones, though he afterwards confessed that one of the
snakes had several times bitten him as it passed through the nose.
These snakes were a foot and a half long, and about as large round as
a man's little finger. By the conjurer's side stood a small boy who
acted as his assistant. In the second picture the conjurer is seen at
work, threading the head of the first snake into his nostril. Needless
to say, this is a delicate operation, and even the little assistant
seemed interested. The bringing back of the head of the snake, after
penetrating the nasal passages and beginning to pass down into the
throat, is accomplished in the following manner. The performer puts
two fingers far back into his mouth, the approach of the fingers and
the arrival of the snake naturally bringing on a muscular spasm of the
throat, which throws forward the head of the reptile and enables it to
be grasped, drawn from the mouth, and allowed to dangle several inches
away from the lips. In the third and fourth pictures the conjurer has
succeeded in accomplishing the feat, having forced the second snake into
as uncomfortable a position as the first. In these photographs the heads
of the two snakes are clearly seen hanging from the man's mouth, while
the squirming tails, for convenience, are snugly curled about his ears!
Self-control and resignation fairly beam from the countenance of the
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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