INDIAN JUGGLERS.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume 6, Issue 1682, 10 May 1884, Page 2

INDIAN JUGGLERS.

A stout, ferocious-looking fellow stepped forward with a common wicker basket of the country, .which he begged we could carefully examine. ■ This wo accordingly did; it was of the slightest texture, and admitted tho light through a thousand apertures. Under this fragile covering wo placed a child about eight years old, an interesting little girl, habited in the only garb which nature had provided for her, perfect of frame and elastic of limb, a model for a cherub, and scarcely darker than a child of Southern Prance. When she was properly secured the man with tho lowering aspect asking her some questions which she instantly answered, aud as the thing was done within a few feet from the spot on which we were seated, the voice appealed to como so distinctly from the basket that I felt at once satisfied there was no deception, They held' a conversation for some moments, when the juggler, almost with a scream of .passion threatened to-kill her. There.was a stern reality in tho whole scene which was perfectly dismaying ; it was acted to the life, but terrible to see nnd hear. The child was heard to beg for mercy, when tho man seized, a sword, placed his foot upon the frail wicker covering under which his supposed victim was so very piteously supplication.his forbearance, and to my absolute consternation and horror, plunged it through with all the blind ferocity on an excited demon. The shrieks of the child were so real and distracting that they almost curdled for a few minutes the whole mass of my blood. My fivafc impulse was to rush upon tho monster and fell him to tho earth. I looked at my companions, they appeared to be pale and paralysed .with terror, and yet those feelings were somewhat neutralised by the consciousness that the man could not dare to commit murder before so many witnesses. Still, the whole thing was appalling. The blood ran in streams from the basket; the child was heard to struggle under it; her groans fell horribly upon the ear; and her struggles smote painfully upon the heart. The former were gradually subdued into a faint moan, and the latter into a slight rustling sound; we seemed to hear tke last convulsive gasp which' was to set her innocent soul free .from the gored body, when, to our inexpressible astonishment and relief, after uttering a few cabalistic words, the juggler took up.his baskot, but no child was to be seen, The spot was indeed dyed with blood, but there were no mortal remains, and after a few moments of unassembled wonder, we perceived the little object of our. alarm coming towards us from the crowd. She advanced and then saluted us, holding her hand out for donations, which she received with a most graceful salaam. What rendered the deception more extraordinary whs that there was not a person within some several feet of the man during the whole performance. '