"In A Few Moments," Says Siddeshur, "He Expressed Anxiety At The
Man's Continued Absence In The Aerial Regions, And Said That He Would Go
Up To See What Was The Matter.
A boy was called, who held upright a long
bamboo, up which the man climbed to the top, whereupon we suddenly lost
sight of him, and the boy laid the bamboo on the ground.
Then there fell
on the ground before us the different members of a human body, all
bloody, - first one hand, then another, a foot, and so on, until complete.
The boy then elevated the bamboo, and the principal performer, appearing
on the top as suddenly as he had disappeared, came down, and seeming quite
disconsolate, said that Indra had killed his friend before he could get
there to save him. He then placed the mangled remains in the same box,
closed it, and tied it as before. Our wonder and astonishment reached
their climax when, a few minutes later, on the box being again opened, the
man jumped out perfectly hearty and unhurt." Is not this rather a severe
strain on one's credulity, even for an Indian jugglery story?]
In Philostratus, again, we may learn the antiquity of some juggling tricks
that have come up as novelties in our own day. Thus at Taxila a man set
his son against a board, and then threw darts tracing the outline of the
boy's figure on the board. This feat was shown in London some fifteen or
twenty years ago, and humorously commemorated in Punch by John Leech.
(Philostratus, Fr. Transl. Bk. III. ch. xv. and xxvii.; Mich. Glycas,
Ann. II. 156, Paris ed.; Delrio, Disquis. Magic. pp. 34, 100; Koeppen,
I. 31, II. 82, 114-115, 260, 262, 280; Vassilyev, 156; Della Penna,
36; S. Setzen, 43, 353; Pereg. Quat. 117; I. B. IV. 39 and 290
seqq.; Asiat. Researches, XVII. 186; Valentyn, V. 52-54; Edward
Melton, Engelsch Edelmans, Zeldzaame en Gedenkwaardige Zee en Land Reizen,
etc., aangevangen in den Jaare 1660 en geendigd in den Jaare 1677,
Amsterdam, 1702, p. 468; Mem. of the Emp. Jahangueir, pp. 99, 102.)
[Illustration: Grand Temple of Buddha at LHASA]
NOTE 12. - ["The maintenance of the Lamas, of their monasteries, the
expenses for the sacrifices and for transcription of sacred books,
required enormous sums. The Lamas enjoyed a preponderating influence, and
stood much higher than the priests of other creeds, living in the palace
as if in their own house. The perfumes, which M. Polo mentions, were used
by the Lamas for two purposes; they used them for joss-sticks, and for
making small turrets, known under the name of ts'a-ts'a; the joss-sticks
used to be burned in the same way as they are now; the ts'a-ts'a were
inserted in suburgas or buried in the ground. At the time when the
suburga was built in the garden of the Peking palace in 1271, there were
used, according to the Empress' wish, 1008 turrets made of the most
expensive perfumes, mixed with pounded gold, silver, pearls, and corals,
and 130,000 ts'a-ts'a made of ordinary perfumes." (Palladius, 29.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 521 of 655
Words from 272004 to 272526
of 342071
