Miss X - - could not stand it any longer
and fled to the carriage, whence she showed us a pale, horrified
face. The Takur, who had arranged himself comfortably beside Mr.
Y - - in order to watch the progress of his paint-ing, left his seat
and looked attentively at the dangerous group, quietly smoking his
gargari - Rajput narghile - the while.
"If you do not stop screaming you will attract all the wild animals
of the forest in another ten minutes," said he. "None of you have
anything to fear. If you do not excite an animal he is almost
sure to leave you alone, and most probably will run away from you."
With these words he lightly waved his pipe in the direction of the
serpentine family-party. A thunderbolt falling in their midst
could not have been more effectual. The whole living mass looked
stunned for a moment, and then rapidly disappeared among the reeds
with loud hissing and rustling.
"Now this is pure mesmerism, I declare," said the colonel, on whom
not a gesture of the Takur was lost. "How did you do it, Gulab-Sing?
Where did you learn this science?"
"They were simply frightened away by the sudden movement of my
chibook, and there was no science and no mesmerism about it.
Probably by this fashionable modern word you mean what we Hindus
call vashi-karana vidya - that is to say, the science of charming
people and animals by the force of will.
