THE DANCING DUCK
As his last trick was with water the Jadoo-wallah sensibly enough
proceeds to show another with water, though an English conjuror would
separate such tricks from an artistic point of view, thinking that a
change of diet in magic is just as necessary as it is in a meal. The
trick is that of the dancing duck.
[Illustration: THE DANCING DUCK,
performed with an enamel bowl instead of the cocoa-nut shell.]
A half cocoa-nut shell is dug out of the bag. It is wrapped up in a
piece of cloth and very carefully unfolded, for reasons that will be
apparent later. In this shell is a little wooden duck. The shell is
placed on the ground and filled with water upon which the duck floats.
The performer takes his "tom tom" and while playing it the duck
begins to dance, as it were, upon the water. After an interval it is
commanded to pay its obeisances or in other words, to "salaam," which
it does by going right under water. On the word "bas" it comes up
again. And so forth and so on.
It is a clever little trick and we will now see how it is done.
The cocoa-nut shell has a hole through the bottom of it. Through this
hole passes a horse hair that is attached at one end to the duck and
at the other to a piece of bees wax. The hair is about two feet long.
The whole apparatus is wrapped in a piece of cloth as otherwise the
horse hair would get unwound and broken. When placing it on the
ground, the bees wax enables the performer to see where the end of the
hair is when unwound. The shell is filled with water, some being
carelessly spilt to prevent the leakage through the little hole at
the bottom being too noticeable. When picking up his "tom-tom" the
performer also picks up the bees wax, and attaching it to the
"tom-tom" the arrangements are complete. Bringing the "tom-tom" closer
to the body makes the duck dive under water. The ordinary shaking of
the drum makes the duck dance.
This is not a trick that can be conveniently shewn by Europeans,
because of the inconvenience of doing it on the ground. The leakage of
the water is not so apparent on the earth, which hides the horse hair.
But at a small distance the trick can be done on a table, as the horse
hair is quite invisible at a range of five feet, especially when it is
against a dark back ground. It can be easily made or bought for a few
annas, and with good patter presents a neat little after dinner
experiment.
_The Mango Tree Trick._
To my mind it is amazing what a spurious reputation this trick has
gained. From a technical point of view, it is possibly the worst
performance of the Indian conjuror. From a physiological point of view
the gullibility of the audience is astounding. Wherever one goes in
England, France or America, in fact anywhere out of India, and the
conversation turns to Magic, one is asked about the Mango Tree trick,
and whether one has seen it done. I have heard the most gorgeously
elaborated descriptions of this trick, given not only by persons who
had heard about it but, I regret to say, by persons who said that they
had seen it done. On one occasion on board ship a Eurasian, who hailed
from ---- and indulged in the Mahommedan name of Macpherson, gave me
the following details of the trick as he had seen it performed, of
course many many years ago. When he was only two years old I expect.
"A conjuror came into the compound, and my father told him to clear
out. The man, however, persisted in remaining, saying that he had
something very wonderful to show us. My father eventually agreed to
watch the performance. We all sat down on the verandah, which was of
solid concrete, and the Jadoo-wallah took off his "dhoti" or loin
cloth, and squatted in front of us. He produced a mango stone and put
it under some loose earth, which he had gathered up from our own
garden. He played on his flute, and as he did so the stone began to
sprout until the little shrub was about two inches high. He then
watered it a little and again began playing the most beautiful music
to it. The little plant grew higher and higher as he did so, until it
was quite two feet high with a number of leaves upon it. He then
watered it a second time, and again played his flute until the tree
was four feet high with fruit on it. He then stopped his music and cut
one of the mangoes off the tree, which my father ate and found to be
delicious."
That was Macpherson's story.
I have never seen the trick done this way, and do not know of anyone
who has. But I have an explanation to give. In fact four explanations.
These are:--
That Macpherson and Baron Muenchausen were relations.
That Macpherson's cousin was Louis de Rougement.
That the trick as above was explained to me late at night, after
Macpherson had had "one or two."
That it was never done at all. Of course I do not want to call
Macpherson a liar. It would be rude. He is a bigger man than I am, and
he might meet me again.
I will now describe the mango trick as I have seen it performed many
many times.
[Illustration: THE PRELIMINARY STAGE OF THE MANGO TREE TRICK
as shewn by Shah Mahommed.]
The Jadoo-wallah, sitting under the porch and not upon a concrete
verandah, heaps up some earth in front of him. He wets this until it
has the consistency of mud. He then places in this little mound a
mango stone and covers the whole with a cloth. He plays the "bean" and
takes away the cloth when the heap is found to be as before. He takes
the lid of his basket, and covering it with the cloth, places it over
the heap of mud propping up one end of it, that towards himself, with
a little piece of stick. More "bean." He then takes away the lid and
cloth. Still no result. He puts back the covering again. (I am going
to call this point "A" for my explanation.) After a certain amount of
manipulation, during which is heard the rustling of leaves, he lifts
it up and Lo! and behold! there is a small plant in view. He
administers to it with water and adjusts its leaves. He again goes
through the same performance as above. Each time that he takes away
the basket cover the tree has grown larger. The most developed finale
that I have seen, is when the tree was about two feet high with a
number of leaves and two diminutive unripe mangoes on it.
My explanation will rob those who like to imagine that magic pure and
simple, accounts for the Mango Tree trick of a great deal of their
enjoyment in that belief.
The making of the loose earth into a mud pie is necessary, because,
otherwise the bits of branches that are to be stuck into it from time
to time will not stand upright.
At the point "A" referred to above, when the performer takes the
basket lid away, with the cloth he picks up a small bundle by his
side which contains a small piece of a mango twig with two or three
leaves upon it. Under cover of the replaced lid he undoes the bundle,
gets out the twig, and sticks it into the mud heap pressing it firmly
down, so that it stands erect and appears to have grown there. He
plays a little music and carries away the lid, and with it the empty
rag that contained the twig. He places the lid on the ground and so
gets rid of the rag. While his audience are showing their surprise at
the development of the twig, he picks up still another larger bundle
containing a still bigger branch of a mango tree. He replaces the lid,
and under cover of it unfolds the bundle, gets out the branch, adds it
to the twig already in the mud heap and makes all secure by again
pressing down the mud.
[Illustration: CONCLUSION OF THE MANGO TREE TRICK.]
Finally he plants in the same way, the branch which has possibly two
mangoes upon it. It might even have ripe fruit, the means of
getting them there being just the same, though the ripe fruit being
brought to view will of course depend upon the season of the year at
which the trick is being shewn.
When the necessary monetary subscription that follows this trick has
been completed, the Jadoo-wallah sweeps the branches, earth, and all
away in one fell destructive swoop which does not allow his audience
to ascertain whether or no the tree had any roots.
Occasionally, instead of the basket lid, the magician uses three
sticks tied together in the form of a tripod over which he places his
cloth under which he works his mysteries. This was the method of Ghaus
Mahommed.
Many of my readers may say that the above cannot be the explanation of
the trick. All I can say is, that the next time they see the mango
trick being performed, let them take a copy of this little book and
refer to it as the trick progresses, when I feel confident that they
will accept this true and only explanation.
If they are still unbelievers, or rather believers in the real Magic
of the trick, let them offer untold gold to any man who will do the
Mango Tree trick in India in January, or February, culminating in the
tree having ripe or unripe fruit upon it. As far as I know, the Mango
Tree does not give fruit in these two months and the money will never
be forfeited.
Now that we know the explanation, does it not strike the reader as
amazing that such a crude, simple trick should have gained the
reputation it has done. I can only attribute the fact to persons like
our Mahommedan and Scotch friend Macpherson, who tell "traveller's
yarns" until they in time begin to believe them themselves.