FAMILY FUN

New Zealand Tablet, 1 May 1913, Page 62

FAMILY FUN

■ * ' The Mango Trick Exposed. The growing mango tree is generally performed on the sand outside a bungalow, and the effect of the trick is that the Indian squats down upon the ground and, after covering the sand in front of him with a brilliantly-colored silk shawl, removes it and shows a tiny"; mango tree—a mere twig with a few leavesstarting to grow. He covers it again, and it has grown a little more; and again, and again, and again, until it is a tall tree bearing a ripe mango upon it. The explanation is simplicity itself. Overnight the Indian has secretly dug a little pit in the sand, and into this he : sinks a long tin cylinder, something like a coffee-can. ' In this he places the full-grown mango tree attached to a disc of thick cork the circumference of the cylinder. The top of the. mango tree just reaches the surface of the sand on which he is seated. When he covers it with _ his silk shawl he scoops away with his fingers a little S of the covering sand, with the result that the few green leaves on the top of the tree become visible. Then he takes a pitcher of water and waters the plant to make it grow. Obviously, the more water which he pours into the cylinder the more it forces the cork up and the more the tree, fixed to this thick base of cork, rises to the surface. He continues to scoop away the sand as it is pushed up by tho water, until at last the full-grown tree, with the ripe mango on it, is exposed.