and made our
orderly hold it in his two hands held together in front of his body.
He then pranced round the orderly two or three times, making, as he
did so an imaginary circle round his assistant. He next called our
attention to the fact that he had nothing concealed about his person.

[Illustration: The Performer showing that he has nothing concealed
about him.]

[Illustration: The actual moment of the appearance of the Snakes and
Crocodiles.]

We could see that this was so as regards his bare chest, arms and
waist, and to convince us that he had nothing hidden in his dhotie he
showed us one bare leg at a time, avoiding barely any immodesty.
Concealing our blushes, we felt satisfied that his dhotie was the
only worldly possession that he had with him at the moment. He picked
up his chanter and continued to circle round and round our orderly,
gradually closing into him. Suddenly he ran towards the outstretched
hands with a crouching movement and struck them a smart blow, causing
the orderly to pull his parted hands away and a small cloud of dust to
appear from the falling earth. The cloud faded in a moment and there,
to our intense astonishment, on the ground at our retainers feet were
three snakes, two of which were cobras, and a baby crocodile! Needless
to say that as soon as our orderly saw these unpleasant creatures
writhing at his feet he cleared off to a safe distance. The
Jadoo-wallah caught the reptiles and placed them in his snake basket.
I took him aside and asked him to divulge the secret of the trick.

"Ha! Ha! saheb" said he "at last I have shewn you something that you
do not know. I will not tell you how it is done, but will come again
in a week's time and will perform it once more for your benefit."

I agreed, and after the usual remuneration or bucksheesh, with a
little extra, had passed hands, away went our friend down the road to
the bazaar.

The following week he sent word that he was coming on a particular
day, and that if I got some friends to come he would repeat the trick.
The more friends, the more bucksheesh!

I gathered a few people in to have tea, and in due course the magician
arrived, and with our head servant again performed the trick with the
same wonderful result.

This time I solved the mystery. I told the performer my impressions of
it and was glad to get his corroboration.

There was of course no collusion with the volunteer assistants.

The secret of the trick lies in a