[Ill.u.s.tration]

It is a most futile trick with little effect and usually uncommonly badly shewn. But the man of mystery himself is delighted with it and thinks it is the best trick in his repertoire.

_The Bunder Boat._

Our next trick--so called because the toy boat used is intended to be a miniature of the harbour or "bander" boat used in Bombay--is a trick which depends entirely on natural principles, and only needs a careful eye to time its required patter. It is a trick that is more commonly shewn in the Bombay districts than elsewhere, though there is no reason why it should not have travelled throughout India since its invention countless years ago.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Small hole out of

which the water pours into the boat while the bottom of the mast is free of the water in the boat.

Cocoa-nut sh.e.l.l full of water

Hollow mast

Hole through which the water leaks. This leakage is not observed owing to the careless(!) spilling of the water referred to in the text.]

A piece of wood cut into the shape of a boat is placed on the ground, and a mast about 12 inches high is fixed into its one and only seat by being firmly pressed into the hole cut through the seat. To the top of the mast is affixed a cocoa-nut sh.e.l.l which has a small hole cut into it about one third of the way up. Prior to the fixing of the mast and the sh.e.l.l, the boat and the sh.e.l.l are filled with water. The bottom of the mast--which is hollowed down its centre--just touches the top of the water in the boat. While filling the articles with water the performer carelessly--very carelessly--spills some on the ground all round the boat. He then blows his "bean." After a short interval he orders water to pour out of the hole in the sh.e.l.l. It does so until he tells it to stop. He again blows his "bean." Again he orders the water to pour out of the sh.e.l.l. Again it pours out until told to stop.

And so on until the sh.e.l.l is quite empty and the trick is at an end.

Wonderful isn't it? Marvellous! Mahatmaism!

Now let us have the explanation.

The cocoa-nut sh.e.l.l is full of water. It has only one outlet, the small hole in its side. This is so small that the air cannot get in to let the water out. The only way the air can get in is up the hollowed mast, the bottom of which is immersed in the water in the boat. There is a small hole in the bottom of the boat through which the water in it leaks away. This lowers the water until it has cleared from the bottom of the mast through which a puff of air goes up into the sh.e.l.l, allowing some of the water in the sh.e.l.l to pour out into the water in the boat. Now the water from the sh.e.l.l pours 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 sh.e.l.l 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 sh.e.l.l. 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 cla.s.s.

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

[Ill.u.s.tration]

He then borrowed some uncooked rice with which he proceeded to fill the bowl to its utmost capacity. While doing so he kept on b.u.mping 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 s.p.a.ce. 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 bowl, filled it with rice, and stabbed it with a table knife. Gently at first and then more firmly. To my astonishment I found that after three or four stabs in exactly the same place, the rice below the blade seemed to get harder, until I pressed down the knife and found that I could not extract it with a straight pull! I lifted the bowl of rice, and could with impunity swing it round over my head just as one uses an Indian club. To extract the knife one has to twist the handle slightly, when it comes out immediately. Try it and see.

_The Coloured Sands._

Occasionally our conjuring friend breaks out from the stereotyped programme already described, and one of the most common additions to his programme is the "coloured sand" trick.

He has a bowl of water on the ground, and from a number of small packets of paper he takes a corresponding number of different coloured powders. Let us say "Green, Red, White, Orange and Blue." He pours all these into the bowl of water, which a.s.sumes a dirty blue colour when stirred up well.

Finally, from a box containing common sand he puts two or three handsfull into the basin of water and thoroughly mixes up the contents of the bowl.

He then asks his audience which coloured sand they would like extracted from the water. The reply may be "green." "Wet or dry?" asks the conjuror. Let us ask for "dry." He dips his hand into the water and grasping, apparently, a handful of the mixture, draws it out again, and squeezes out a shower of dry green sand, unmixed with any other colour! "Now what colour will you have?" asks the magician. Let us ask for "wet blue sand." He dips his empty hand into the water, and draws out a handful of wet blue sand, for, when he opens his hand, a damp ball of blue sand falls on to the ground. He can deal with the other coloured sands in the same way, bringing out each colour separately, and wet or dry as desired.

How on earth is it done?

The different coloured sands or powders are put into the water in a fair and square manner. But the solution of the trick is to be found in the way in which he puts the common sand into the water. This common sand is kept in a box, and in it are little b.a.l.l.s of prepared powders or sand of colours corresponding to those already put into the water. These b.a.l.l.s are prepared by being mixed with a little water, rolled into a ball, which is smeared all over with grease, and then baked until dry. Each ball can then be immersed in water for a minute or so without crumbling or being damaged by the water. These b.a.l.l.s are put into the common sand box, so that they are only just visible to the performer. He puts his hand into the box and extracts a handful of common sand, together with a ball of powder. He thrusts his hand into the bowl leaving the ball immersed, and notes its position.

He again takes a handful of common sand and with it another ball which he places in the water. Similarly he places all the coloured b.a.l.l.s into the water, under the guise of adding plenty of common sand, to make the trick more difficult and wonderful. He notes very carefully the position of each coloured ball as he puts it into the water, as when immersed they cannot be seen either by him or the audience, owing to the dirty blue-ishness of the whole mixture.

The audience now select the colour of the powder to be extracted. The performer remembers the position of the required ball and takes it out.

If it is to be poured out wet, he opens his hand and drops it on to the ground. If it is wanted "Dry," by squeezing the ball, its baked sh.e.l.l is cracked and its contents pour out.

There is no difficulty in performing the trick. It is very effective and one that is included in the programme of many European conjurors, though their modus operandi is more efficient and needs less preparation.

CHAPTER VI

A ROPE TRICK

The only rope trick I have ever seen performed by an Indian conjuror, is that of "The cut string restored," as it is called in England.

The idea is to get one of the audience to cut a piece of string or rope ostensibly in half and by magic to restore it, without the use of knots.

[Ill.u.s.tration: PRELIMINARIES OF THE RESTORED ROPE.

The only rope trick that I have ever seen performed in India.]

The explanation of this trick is given in many books for beginners in Magic. The author of "Modern Magic"--the best work to my mind on Elementary conjuring--says of it "This trick is of such venerable antiquity, that we should not have ventured to allude to it, were it not that the mode of working, which we are about to describe, though old in principle is new in detail and much superior in neatness to the generally known methods."