“‘Bravo! bravo!’ re-echoed from all parts of the room. The musicians declared the canary was a greater master of music than any of their band.
“‘And do you not show your sense of this civility, sir?’ cried the bird catcher with an angry air. The canary bowed most respectfully, to the delight of the company.
“His next achievement was that of going through the martial exercise with a straw gun, after which, ‘My poor Bijou,’ says the owner, ‘thou hast had hard work and must be a little weary; a few performances more and thou shalt repose. Show the ladies how to make a curtsey.’ The bird here crossed his taper legs and sank and rose with an ease and grace that would have put half the belles to the blush.
“‘That will do, my bird; and now a bow, head and foot corresponding.’ Here the striplings for ten miles around London might have blushed also.
“‘Let us finish with a hornpipe, my brave little fellow; that’s it, keep it up, keep it up.’
“The activity, glee, spirit, and accuracy with which this last order was obeyed, wound up the applause to the highest pitch of admiration. Bijou himself seemed to feel the sacred thirst of fame, and shook his little plumes and carolled an “Io paean” that sounded like the conscious notes of victory.”
A curious trick is performed by a particular kind of pigeon, quite common in India. These birds are called “tumbling pigeons” from their peculiarity which consists of tumbling on the ground, instead of in the air. When required to tumble they are taken in the hand, and the head slightly rubbed or “filliped” with the finger, and then they are put on the ground, when they continue to tumble until taken up. They are not left on the ground until their tumblings are completed, being invariably taken up after they have tumbled about a dozen times; probably they would injure or exhaust themselves, if left longer. The pigeons are always white, and though their wings are long and pointed, they seem to have small powers of flight.
CHAPTER XXV.
SNAKE CHARMING AND SNAKE CHARMER.
On the subject of snake charming, a wide diversity of opinion seems to exist. While it is vouched for by many apparently creditable and honest citizens, that the exhibitions of the East Indian snake charmers show that they really do possess some mysterious power over the reptiles to which they owe their safety in freely handling the most venomous serpents, on the other hand, persons apparently qualified to express an opinion, declare the whole system of snake charming to be but some clever impositions. There is said to exist a species of snake of large size, and so closely resembling the deadly cobra, as to be easily mistaken for it by ordinary observers, but which is perfectly harmless. May not this be used in some of these performances? Again, snakes of really poisonous species appear, on good authority, in many instances, to have been tampered with by the charmers by having their fangs removed, or by being made to strike them into cloth or other substances until the present supply of poison was exhausted. Where this has been done, and new fangs have grown, or more poison secreted, numerous charmers have lost their lives by their ignorance or carelessness of the fact. An officer in a French regiment stationed in Africa, relates that what were represented by an Arab juggler to be scorpions, were actually nothing but harmless lizards, and that the man’s feat of thrusting his naked hand into the bag containing them was no feat at all. Upon the officer offering to do the same act, the juggler slunk away.