A MYSTERY OF MADRAS

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLV, Issue 2676, 27 December 1923, Page 4

A MYSTERY OF MADRAS

How many people with an acquaintance with India and the East have seen the calling of the crows as one of the tricks of the itinerant .juggler? A correspondent in the Times gives an interesting account 'of such an incident, novel even to a collector who had spent many years in the Indian Civil Service. A snake charmer at a tiny place 30 miles from Madras, the benighted Presidency, had been refused permission to do the usual snake tricks and then asked if he should call the crows. “Certainly,” said the collector, “for there are none here.” For about ten minutes there was a curious'whistling and falling, and then the birds began to come, first in twos and threes, then more and more until the place was black with them. The charmer asked if this was enough, or should he call more crows?. Enough, was the answer. Ordered to send them away, he did, and within five, minutes not a crow was in sight. The Indian crow is one of the sights of the country, a nuisance, but valuable ! as a scavenger, and possessing considerably more cunning than his English brother. The sight of a gun scares them, and they move off to a distance only just out of range.