ours out in greater volume
into the boat than the water that is leaking out of the boat. This
fills it up again until the bottom of the mast is again immersed,
stopping any air going up into the shell and the water stops pouring
out of it.

The performer drones away on his musical instrument until he sees that
the water level in the boat is just about to clear the bottom of the
mast. He then orders the water to come out of the shell. He watches
until the newly added water to that in the boat is about to cover the
bottom of the mast again, and then gives that wonderful and much used
order "Bus" that, possibly, many of my readers may use from time to
time after the sun has set. The water stops pouring out of the mast.

Wonderful isn't it? Mahatma. Ghandi ki Jai!

CHAPTER V

THE BOWL OF RICE

A surprising little trick was once shewn to me by a performer whose
exhibition of magic was otherwise of a very low class.

He borrowed a "lota" or brass water bowl of one of the servants. These
lotas are invariably so shaped that the circumference of the top is
about half that of the widest part, thus:--

[Illustration]

He then borrowed some uncooked rice with which he proceeded to fill
the bowl to its utmost capacity. While doing so he kept on bumping
the bowl on the ground so that the rice was packed as closely as
possible inside it, until finally one could see the last few grains in
a pyramid on top.

He then borrowed a large table knife, and as it were, stabbed it into
the rice down into the bowl. Little stabs at first, and then deeper
and deeper until the whole of the blade of the knife was in the rice,
and the handle alone remained to be seen. After an incantation and
jadoo-music, he caught hold of the handle and raised the bowl and the
rice slowly into space. He then swung it to and fro and eventually
spun round and round, holding the handle of the knife while the bowl
and its contents of rice clung tenaciously to the blade. Beginning to
slow down, he at last replaced the bowl on the ground, extracted the
knife and handed it to me for examination. He emptied the bowl pouring
the rice into some paper laid out to receive it. The closest scrutiny
revealed no trace of "gadgets" or of any artifice that had enabled him
to thus lift the filled bowl.

A small bribe could not tempt him to reveal the secret, and in such
cases I make it a rule to try the trick exactly as I have seen it
done.

I took a similar bow