has been discovered, each animalcule being provided | with appropriate organs, endowed with spontaneous powers of motion, and giving unequivocal signs of individual vitality. Thus, if we review every region of the globe, from the scorching sands of the equator to the icy realms of the poles, or from the lofty mountain-summits to the dark abysses of the deep; if we penetrate into the shades of the forest, or into the caverns and secret recesses of the earth; nay, if we take up the minutest portion of stagnant water, we still meet with life in some new and unexpected form, yet ever adapted to the circumstances of its situation. Wherever life can be sustained, we find life produced. It would almost seem as if Nature had been thus lavish and sportive in her productions, with the intent to demonstrate to man the fertility of her resources, and the inexhaustible fund from which she has so prodigally drawn forth the means requisite for the maintenance of all these diversified combinations, for their repetition in endless perpetuity, and for their subordination to one harmonious scheme of general good. The vegetable world is no less prolific in wonders than the animal. In this, as in all other parts of creation, ample scope is found for the exercise of the reasoning faculties, and abundant sources are supplied of intellectual enjoyment. To discriminate the different characters of plants, amidst the infinite diversity of shape, of colour, and of structure, which they offer to our observation, is the laborious, yet fascinating, occupation of the botanist. Here, also, we are lost in admiration at the never-ending variety of forms successively displayed to view in the innumerable species which compose this kingdom of nature, and at the energy of that vegetative power, which, amidst such great differences of situation, sustains the modified life of each individual plant, and which continues its species in endless perpetuity. Wherever circumstances are compatible with vegetable existence, we there find plants arise. It is well known that, in all places where vegetation has been established, the germs are so intermingled with the soil, that whenever the earth is turned up, even from considerable depths, and exposed to the air, plants are soon observed to spring, as if they had been recently sown, in consequence of the germination of seeds which had remained latent and inactive during the lapse of perhaps many centuries. Islands formed by coral-reefs, which have risen above the level of the sea, become, in a short time, covered with verdure. From the materials of the most sterile rock, and even from the yet recent cinders and lava of the volcano, Nature prepares the way for vegetable existence. The slightest crevice or inequality is sufficient to arrest the invisible germs that are always floating in the air, and affords the means of sustenance to diminutive races of lichens and mosses. These soon overspread the surface, and are followed, in the course of a few years, by successive tribes of plants of gradually-increasing size and strength; till at length the island, or other favoured spot, is converted into a natural and luxuriant garden, of which the productions, rising from grasses to shrubs and trees, present all the varieties of the fertile meadow, the tangled thicket, and the widely-spreading forest. Even in the desert plains of the torrid zone, the eye of the traveller is often refreshed by the appearance of a few hardy plants, which find sufficient materials for their growth in these arid regions: and in the realms of perpetual snow which surround the poles, the navigator is occasionally startled at the prospect of fields of a scarlet hue, the result of a wide expanse of microscopic vegetation. [ROGET's Bridgewater Treatise.] THE MAIN-TRUCK, or, A LEAP FOR LIFE. And dizzy 'tis to cast one's eyes so low!........ That on th' unnumber'd idle pebbles chafes Cannot be heard so high :-I'll look no more; Lest my brain turn, and the deficient sight Topple down headlong.-SHAKSPEARE. AMONG the many agreeable associates whom my different cruisings and wanderings have brought me acquainted with, I can scarcely call to mind a more pleasant and companionable one than Tom Scupper. Poor fellow! he is dead and gone now-a victim to that code of false honour which has robbed the navy of too many of its choicest officers. Tom and I were messmates during a short and delightful cruise, and, a good part of the time, we belonged to the same watch. He was a great hand to spin yarns, which, to do him justice, he sometimes did tolerably well; and many a long mid-watch has his fund of anecdote and sea-stories caused to slip pleasantly away. We were lying in the open roadstead of Laguayra, at single anchor, when Tom told me the story which I am about to relate, as nearly as I can remember, in his own words. A vessel from Baltimore had come into Laguayra that day, and by her I had received letters from home, in one of which there was a piece of intelligence that weighed heavily on my spirits. For some minutes after our watch commenced, Tom and I walked the deck in silence, which was soon, however, interrupted by my talkative companion, thoughts, told me the story which I am now about to relate, who, perceiving my depression, and wishing to divert my for the entertainment of the reader. The last cruise I made in the Mediterranean, said he, was in old Ironsides, as we used to call our gallant frigate. We had been backing and filling for several months on the western coast of Africa, from the Canaries down to Messurado, in search of slave-traders; and during that time we had had some pretty heavy weather. When we reached the Straits, there was a spanking wind blowing from about west-south-west; so we squared away, and, without coming-to at the Rock, made a straight wake for old Mahon, the general rendezvous and place of refitting arriving there, we warped in alongside the Arsenal quay, for our squadrons, in the Mediterranean. Immediately on where we stripped ship to a girtline, broke out the holds tiers, and store-rooms, and gave her a regular-built overhauling from stem to stern. For a while, every body was busy, and all seemed bustle and confusion. Orders and replies, in loud and dissimilar voices, the shrill pipings of the different boatswains' mates, each attending to separate duties, and the mingled clatter and noise of various kinds the stir and animation of a dock-yard, to the usually quiet of work, all going on at the same time, gave something of arsenal of Mahon. The boatswain and his crew were engaged in fitting a new gang of rigging; the gunner in repairing his breechings and gun-tackles; the fo castle-men in calking; the top-men in sending down the yards and upper spars; the holders and waisters in whitewashing and like beasts of burden, in carrying breakers of water on holy-stoning; and even the poor marines were kept busy, their backs. On the quay, near the ship, the smoke of the armourer's forge, which had been hoisted out, and sent ashore, ascended in a thin column through the clear blue sky; from one of the neighbouring white stone warehouses, the sound of saw and hammer told that the carpenters the cooper, who, in the open air, was tightening the waterwere at work; near by, a livelier rattling drew attention to casks; and not far removed, under a temporary shed, formed of spare studding-sails and tarpaulins, sat the sail-maker and his assistants, repairing the sails, which had been rent or injured by the many storms we had encountered. Many hands made light work, and in a very few days all was accomplished: the stays and shrouds were set up, and new rattled down, the yards crossed, the running rigging all a-taunt-o, looked as fine as a midshipman on liberty. rove, and sails bent; and the old craft, fresh painted and In place of the storm-stumps, which had been stowed away among the booms, and other spare spars, amidships, we had sent up cap to gallant-masts, and royal poles, with a sheave for skysails, and hoist enough for sky-scrapers above them: There was a Dutch line-ship in the harbour; but though so you may judge the old frigate looked pretty taunt we only carried forty-four to her eighty, her main-truck would hardly have reached to our royal-mast-head. The side-boys, whose duty it was to lay aloft, and furl the skysails, looked no bigger on the yard than a good-sized duff for a midshipman's mess, and the main-truck seemed not half as large as the Turk's-head-knot on the man-ropes of the accommodation-ladder, When we had got every thing ship-shape, aud man-ofwar fashion, we hauled out again, and took our berth about half-way between the arsenal and Hospital Island; and a pleasant view it gave us of the town and harbour of old Mahon, one of the safest and most tranquil places of anchorage in the world. The water of this beautiful inlet, which, though it makes about four miles into the land, is not much over a quarter of a mile in width, is scarcely ever ruffled by a storm; and on the delightful afternoon to which I now refer, it lay as still and motionless as a polished mirror, except when broken into momentary_ripples, by the paddles of some passing waterman. What little wind there had been in the fore-part of the day, died away at noon, and, though the first dog-watch was almost out, and the sun near the horizon, not a breath of air had risen to disturb the deep serenity of the scene. The Dutch liner, which lay not far from us, was so clearly reflected in the glassy surface of the water, that there was not a rope about her, from her main-stay to her signal halliards, which the eye could not distinctly trace in her shadowy and inverted image. The buoy of our best bower floated abreast our larboard bow; and that, too, was so strongly imaged, that its entire bulk seemed to lie above the water, just resting on it, as if upborne on a sea of molten lead; except when now and then, the wringing of a swab, or the dashing of a bucket overboard from the head, broke up the shadow for a moment, and showed the substance but half its former apparent size. A small polacca craft had got under-way from Mahon in the course of the forenoon, intending to stand over to Barcelona; but it fell dead calm just before she reached the chops of the harbour; and there she lay as motionless upon the blue surface, as if she were only part of a mimic scene, from the pencil of some accomplished painter. Her broad cotton lateen-sails, as they hung drooping from the slanting and taper yards, shone with a glistening whiteness that contrasted beautifully with the dark flood in which they were reflected; and the distant sound of the guitar, which one of the sailors was listlessly playing on her deck, came sweetly over the water, and harmonized well with the quiet appearance of A red spot mounted to little Bob's cheek, as he cast one every thing around. The whitewashed walls of the laza-glance of offended pride at Jake, and then sprang across retto, on a verdant headland at the mouth of the bay, glittered like silver in the slant rays of the sun; and some of its windows were burnished so brightly by the level beams, that it seemed as if the whole interior of the edifice were in flames. On the opposite side, the romantic and picturesque ruins of fort St. Philip, faintly seen, acquired double beauty, from being tipped with the declining light; and the clusters of ancient-looking windmills, which dot the green eminences along the bank, added, by the motionless state of their wings, to the effect of the unbroken tranquillity. ning back at the negro, as if there existed some means of Even on board our vessel, a degree of stillness unusual for a man-of-war, prevailed among the crew. It was the hour of their evening meal; and the low murmur from the gun-deck had an indistinct and buzzing sound, which, like the dreamy hum of bees on a warm summer-noon, rather heightened, than diminished the charm of the surrounding quiet. The spar-deck was almost deserted. The quartermaster of the watch, with his spy-glass in his hand, and dressed in a frock and trowsers of snowy whiteness, stood aft upon the taffrel, erect and motionless as a statue, keeping the usual look-out. A group of some half-dozen sailors had gathered together on the fo castle, where they were supinely lying under the shade of the bulwarks; and here and there, upon the gun-slides along the gangway, sat three or four others,-one, with his clothes-bag beside him, overhauling his simple wardrobe; another working a set of clues for some favourite officer's hammock; and a third engaged, perhaps, in carving his name in rude letters upon the handle of a jack-knife, or in knotting a laniard, with which to suspend it round his neck. On the top of the boom-cover, in the full glare of the level sun, lay black Jake, the jig-maker of the ship, and a striking specimen of African peculiarities, in whose single person they were all strongly developed. His flat nose was dilated to unusual width, and his ebony cheeks fairly glistened with delight, as he looked up at the gambols of a large monkey, which, clinging to the main-stay, just above Jake's woolly head, was chattering and grin 66 The monkey looked down from his perch as if he understood the threat of the negro, and chattered a sort of defiance in answer. "Ha, ha! Massa Stay, he say you mus' ketch him 'fore you flog him; and it's no so easy for a midshipman in boots to ketch a monkey barefoot." the deck to the Jacob's ladder. In an instant he was halfway up the rigging, running over the ratlines as lightly as if they were an easy flight of stairs, whilst the shrouds scarcely quivered beneath his elastic motion. In a second more his hand was on the futtocks. "Massa Stay," cried Jake, who sometimes, being a favourite, ventured to take liberties with the younger officers; "Massa Stay, you best crawl through de lubber's hole-it take a sailor to climb de futtock shroud." But he had scarcely time to utter his pretended caution, before Bob was in the top. The monkey, in the mean while, had awaited his approach, until he got nearly up the rigging, when it suddenly put the cap on its own head, and running along the yard to the opposite side of the top, sprang up a rope, and thence to the topmast backstay, up which it ran to the topmast cross-trees, where it again quietly seated itself, and resumed its work of picking the tassel to pieces. For several minutes I stood watching my little messmate follow Jacko from one piece of rigging to another, the monkey, all the while, seeming to exert only so much agility as was necessary to elude the pursuer, and pausing whenever the latter appeared to be growing weary of the chase. At last, by this kind of manoeuvring, the mischievous animal succeeded in enticing Bob as high as the royal-mast-head, when, springing suddenly on the royal stay, it ran nimbly down to the fore-to'-gallant-mast-head, thence down the rigging to the foretop, and leaping on the foreyard, it ran out to the yard-arm, hung the cap on the end of the studding-sail boom, and there taking its seat, it raised a loud and exulting chattering. Bob by this time was completely tired out, and, unwilling, perhaps, to return in the royal cross-trees, while those who had been attracted to the deck to be laughed at for his fruitless chase, sat down by the sport, returned to their usual avocations or amusements. The monkey, no longer the object of pursuit or attention, remained but a little while on the yard-arm; but soon taking up the cap, returned in towards the slings, and dropped it down upon the deck. Some little piece of duty occurred at this moment to engage me for a few moments, and as soon as it was performed I walked aft, and leaning my elbow on the taffrel, gave myself up to the recollection of scenes very different from the boyish pantomime I had just been witnessing. Soothed by the low hum of the crew, and by the quiet loveliness of every thing around, my thoughts had travelled far away from the realities of my situation, when I was suddenly startled by a cry from Black Jake, which brought me on the instant back to consciousness. “Look, look! Massa Scupper," cried he, “Massa Stay is on de main-truck!" I A cold shudder ran through my veins at the word. cast my eyes up-it was too true! The adventurous boy, after resting on the royal cross-trees, had been seized with a wish to go still higher, and moved by one of those impulses which sometimes instigate men to place themselves in situations of imminent peril, where no good can result from the exposure, he had climbed the skysail-pole, and, at the moment of my looking up, was actually standing on the main-truck! a small circular piece of wood on the very summit of the loftiest mast, and at a height so great from the deck that my brain turned dizzy as I looked up at him. The reverse of Virgil's line was true in this instance. It was comparatively easy to ascend-but to descend-my head swam round, and my stomach felt sick, at the thought of the perils comprised in that one word. There was nothing above him or around him but empty air-and beneath him nothing but a point, a mere point-a small unstable wheel, that seemed no bigger from the deck than the button on the end of a foil, and the taper skysail-pole itself scarcely larger than the blade. Dreadful temerity! If he should attempt to stoop, what could he take hold of to steady his descent? His feet quite covered up the small and fearful platform upon which he stood, and beneath that, a long, smooth, naked spar, which seemed to bend with his weight, was all that upheld him from destruction. An attempt to get down from that "bad eminence," would be almost certain death; he would inevitably lose his equilibrium, and be precipitated to the deck a crushed and shapeless mass. Such were the thoughts that crowded through my mind as I first raised my eyes, and saw the terrible truth of Jake's exclamation. What was to be done in the pressing and fearful exigency? To hail him, and inform him of the danger, would be but to ensure his ruin. Indeed I fancied that the rash boy already perceived the imminence of his peril; and I half thought I could see his limbs begin to quiver. Every moment I expected to see the dreadful catastrophe. I could not bear to look at him, and yet could not withdraw my gaze. A film came over my eyes, and a faintness over my heart. The atmosphere seemned to grow thick, and tremble and waver like the heated air round a furnace; the mast appeared to totter, and the ship to pass from under my feet. I myself had the sensations of one about to fall from a great height, and in a sudden effort to recover myself, like that of a dreamer who fancies he is shoved from a precipice, I staggered up against the bulwarks. When my eyes were once turned from the object to which they had been riveted, my sense and consciousness came back. I looked round-the deck was already crowded with people. The intelligence of poor Bob's temerity had spread through the ship like wildfire-and the officers and crew were all crowding to the deck. Every one, as he looked up, turned pale, and his eye became fastened on the truck like that of a spectator of an execution on the gallows with a stedfast and unblinking, yet abhorrent gaze, as if momently expecting a fatal termination to the suspense. No one made a suggestion-no one spoke. Every feeling, every faculty, seemed absorbed and swallowed up in one deep, intense emotion of agony. Once the first lieutenant seized the trumpet, as if to hail poor Bob, but he had scarce raised it to his lips, when his arm dropped again, and sunk listlessly down beside him, as if from sad consciousness of the inutility of what he had been going to say. Every soul in the ship was now on the spar-deck, and every eye was fixed on the main-truck. At this moment there was a stir among the crew about the gangway, and directly after, another face was added to those on the quarter-deck-it was that of the commodore, Bob's father. He had come alongside in a shore-boat, without having been noticed by a single eye, so intense and universal was the interest that had fastened every gaze upon the spot where poor Bob stood trembling on the awful verge of fate. The commodore asked not a question, uttered not a syllable. He was a dark-faced, austere man, and it was thought by some of the midshipmen that he entertained but little affection for his son. However that might have been, it was certain that he treated him with precisely the same strict discipline that he maintained towards the other young officers, or if there was any difference at all, it was not in favour of Bob. Some, who pretended to have studied his character closely, affirmed that he loved his boy too well to spoil him, and that, intending him for the arduous profession in which he had himself risen to fame and eminence, he thought it would be of service to him to experience some of its privations and hardships at the outset. The arrival of the commodore changed the direction of several eyes, which turned on him, to trace what emotions the danger of his son would occasion. But their scrutiny was foiled. By no outward sign did he show what was passing within. His eye still retained its severe expression, his brow the slight frown which it usually wore, and his lip its haughty curl. Immediately on reaching the deck, he had ordered a marine to hand him a musket, and with this, stepping after, and getting on the look-out block, he raised it to his shoulder, and took a deliberate aim at his son, at the same time hailing him, without a trumpet, in his voice of thunder, "Robert!" cried he, "jump! jump overboard! or I'll fire at you." The boy seemed to hesitate, and it was plain that he was tottering, for his arms were thrown out like those of one scarcely able to retain his balance. The commodore raised his voice again, and, in a quicker and more energetic tone, cried, 66 'Jump! 'tis your only chance for life.” The words were scarcely out of his mouth, before the boy was seen to leave the truck, and spring out into the air. Á sound, between a shriek and a groan, burst from many lips. The father spoke not-sighed not-indeed he did not seem to breathe. For a moment of intense interest a pin might have been heard to drop on deck. With a rush like that of a cannon-ball, the body descended to the water, and before the waves closed over it, twenty stout fellows, among them several officers, had dived from the bulwarks. Another short period of anxious suspense ensued. He rosehe was alive! his arms were seen to move !-he struck out towards the ship!-and despite the discipline of a man-ofwar, three loud huzzas, an outburst of unfeigned and unrestrainable joy from the hearts of our crew of five hun dred men, pealed through the air, and made the welkin ring. Till this moment, the old commodore had stood unmoved. The eyes that, glistening with joy, now sought his face, saw that it was ashy pale. He attempted to descend the look-out block, but his knees bent under him; he seemed to gasp for breath, and put up his hand, as if to tear open his vest; but before he accomplished his object, he staggered forward, and would have fallen on the deck, had he not been caught by old Black Jake. He was borne into his cabin, where the surgeon attended him, whose utmost skill was required to restore his mind to its usual equability and self-command, in which he at last happily succeeded. As soon as he recovered from the dreadful shock, he sent for Bob, and had a long confidential conference with him; and it was noticed when the little fellow left the cabin that he was in tears. The next day we sent down our taunt and dashy poles, and replaced them with the stump-to'-gallant masts; and on the third, we weighed anchor, and made sail for Gibraltar. [CAPTAIN BASIL HALL.] PERSONS who want experience should be extremely cautious how they depart from those principles which have been received generally, because founded on solid reasons; and how they deviate from those customs which have ob tained long, because in their effect they have proved good. thus circumspect should all persons be, who cannot yet have acquired much practical knowledge of the world; lest, instead of becoming what they anxiously wish to become, more beneficial to mankind than those who have preceded them, they should actually, though inadvertently, be instrumental towards occasioning some of the worst evils that can befall human society.-BISHOP HUNTINGford. LONDON: JOHN WILLIAM PARKER, WEST STRAND Published in WEEKLY NUMBERS, PRICE ONE PENNY, AND IN MONTHLY Parti, PRICE SIXPENCE, AND Sold by all Booksellers and Newsvenders in the Kingdom, UNDER THE DIRECTION OF THE COMMITTEE OF GENERAL LITERATURE AND EDUCATION, APPOINTED BY THE SOCIETY FOR PROMOTING CHRISTIAN KNOWLEDGE. THE INDIAN SNAKE-CHARMERS. THE jugglers of India have been long celebrated for their extraordinary dexterity, and, by the natives generally, they are supposed to have intercourse with demons. These vagrants are frequently applied to as the bravoes of Spain and Italy formerly were, to get rid of obnoxious persons, whom they contrive to despatch by poison, when well paid for the service, and pretend that their influence with some malignant spirit has produced a signal retribution upon the chemy of their employer, who they boldly assert was no longer fit to live. The various tribes of vagrants who live by different mountebank arts, though universally despised, are universally dreaded. They are outcasts; and yet the awe which they inspire, gives them a sort of confidence, and obtains for them, under certain circumstances, a forced respect, which renders their social condition far less deplorable than that of the Pariah tribes generally. The most common class among the jugglers, and by far the most harmless, is that of the snake-catchers, who infest the villages and fairs, exhibiting their snakes, and accompanying their movements with a music, if it may be so called, from which all melody is banished, and the most frightful confusion of sounds produced, that jars upon musical nerves worse than the old-fashioned wedding accompaniments of marrow-bones and cleavers in this country, upon the ears of a young bride. They carry their serpents in round wicker baskets with flat bottoms, in which the creatures le coiled up in a state of lethargy, until roused by the harsh tones of their keepers' flutes. It is astonishing to see how they are affected by the tones of those rude instruments, for no sooner do their charmers begin to blow, than the snakes raise their heads, gradually erect themselves, waving their necks to and fro, as if in a state of ecstasy. The hooded-snake is always the most prominent, one of which is represented in the print, with the hood spread close by the hand of the man who is holding a pitcher. The rock-snake, held by the person in the opposite corner of the picture is innoxious, but the bite of a hooded-snake is generally fatal; nevertheless, the charmers do not extract the poisonous fangs as is commonly supposed, but exhibit these reptiles with all their powers of mischief unimpaired, and it is the perfect knowledge of their habits that secures them from the danger of being bitten*. The rock-snake is usually from twelve to sixteen feet long, of a sluggish nature, and suffers itself to be handled without making any effort to escape. The man who shows it, ties it round his neck like a lady's boa, and coils it into all sorts of fantastic figures, the creature remaining all the while perfectly passive. This class of jugglers perform numberless tricks with these reptiles, taking even such as are venomous in their hands, and putting them against their cheeks with perfect impunity. They always pretend that the fangs are extracted, in order to prevent alarm in those before whom they exhibit them. The general opinion concerning these pretenders, is that they possess the power of charming all venomous snakes, and of commanding their perfect obedience. The medium of communication they profess to be the musical instrument, the sound of which appears to infuse into the dumb captives new life and energy. "The same art," says the Abbé Dubois, "6 seems to have been laid claim to in other ancient nations; witness the allegory of the prophet, where he compares the obstinacy of a hardened For a further explanation of this subject, see Saturday Maga sine, Vol. VI., p. 143. sinner to a serpent that shuts its ear against the voice of the charmer." The allegory to which this writer refers, is contained in the fourth and fifth verses of the fifty-eighth psalm: "their poison is like the poison of a serpent; they are like the deaf adder that stoppeth her ear, which will not hearken to the voice of the charmers, charming never so wisely." Whenever a poisonous snake is known to be in the vicinity of a dwelling-house, the snake-charmer is sent for to remove it, and he always undertakes to get rid of the obnoxious intruder for a trifling gratuity, but generally receives the money without abating the nuisance which he is employed to remedy; for it commonly happens that as soon as he approaches the hole where the reptile has taken shelter, it crawls further in. When this is the case the man has his remedy; he resorts to imposture, and thus terminates the business to his employer's entire satisfaction, as well as his own. His mode of proceeding is as follows. He takes one of his tame snakes, which he carries concealed about his person, and having made every one retire from the spot where he is to commence his charm, secretly places the tame snake in the hole, and instantly begins to blow upon the favourite pipe, which the creature no sooner hears than it creeps out, when the impostor scizes it by the neck, receives his stipulated reward, and bears off in triumph the supposed offender. If on the following day, the snake remaining in the hole should happen to show itself, the same farce is repeated, and the man receives his second fee, accompanied by the earnest thanks of the donor. These jugglers frequently contrive to impose upon the superstitious Hindoos, by persuading them that their houses are infested with snakes. In order to make this appear, they place one or two of their tame ones in some of the crevices of the building. They then enter the house with all the assumed wisdom of the ancient Sages, begin to pipe such music as would scare any other creature but a snake into the deepest recesses of its retreat, and when the reptile appears, they snatch it up, put it immediately into its wicker prison, and thus the enchantment ends. These pretended enchanters will sometimes go into every house in a village, and practise the same deceits, and where imposition is so easy, and impunity so certain, it is no wonder that there are such a num ber of cheating vagabonds and quacks of all kinds in every part of India. It must be confessed, however, that among the jugglers are frequently to be found persons who perform feats of manual dexterity scarcely credible. They possess an elasticity of body, and a flexibility of limb, far exceeding any thing ever witnessed in colder latitudes. I may mention one or two of their cunning juggles, and then a feat of physical activity which I have witnessed more than once. These people come to your house in broad day-light, and perform their tricks upon the ground before your door; they have no cunningly-planned tables to disguise their art, but only a few implements of their profession contained in a small basket. Being almost entirely naked, they have not those resources common to all conjurors in other countries. One of their favourite tricks is to take the seed of a mango, which they put into a small pot of earth, about the size of an ordinary flower-pot. In a short time the earth is seen to heave, and, after a few seconds, the head of a plant peeps forth. To the astonishment of the beholder it gradually rises, the buds swell, the leaves unfold, the blossom expands, and presented to you, and always turns out to be a the fruit forms, grows, and ripens, when it is plucked |