Chinese Life in the Tibetan Foothills/Book 4/Conjuring
Conjuring (耍霸氣).
Tight-rope walking is common, ch‘ai so ch‘iao (踹索橋). The rope may be a hundred feet long and fifty above the ground. The performer is a girl of about ten, who carries a sandbag in each hand.
A woman stands on her head on a table and balances a wine cask first on one foot and then on the other, têng t‘an tzŭ (登𦉡子). Sometimes a child is put inside the cask and crawls out and sits on the top of it while it is balanced in the air.
A woman balances a ladder on the palms of her hands, then a child threads each rung up and turns over the top and threads its way down again head downward. This is called fan fei yün t‘i (番飛雲梯).
A bare table is covered with a cloth; after beating of drums and burning of incense and paper, the actor will ask if the guests have all come, and on being assured that they have arrived, the table-cloth is removed and there is displayed a fine, hot, ready-cooked feast.
A flower-pot is covered with a cloth and after some music and incantations the cloth is removed and a fine flowering orchid exposed to view. The same kind of trick is also done with a pot of earth in which a melon seed is sown.
The wooden frame which holds the fire basin is put down and covered with a cloth ; and after music and incantations the cloth is removed, when a hot fire on the fire basin is exposed to view. Many are willing to pay large sums of money for instruction in this art.
An empty wine-glass is held in one hand and an empty jar in another and after a few motions and incantations wine is found emptied from the jar into the wine cup, and people are invited to drink.
A woman's embroidered shoe is manipulated in the hand, and it suddenly becomes a rabbit, pigeon, rat or other creature. The conjurer after a little seizes the animal and knocks it on the back of the head and it becomes a shoe once again in his hand.
A wisp of straw becomes changed into a rat. This is very much the same as the last.
Coloured paper is cut into strips and covered with a cloth. When the cloth is removed the strips of paper have been transformed into pretty lanterns already lighted.
A fan is torn to shreds. The conjurer then makes various motions with his hands and the fan is produced and opened up as good as new.
Paper is torn into small pieces and covered with a cloth; when the cloth is removed a swarm of hornets fly buzzing about, but as soon as they are caught they become pieces of paper again.
The leaves and twigs of a willow tree are broken into pieces and thrown into the river, where they appear to become fishes, but when caught they are simply the willow twigs.
A coin is placed on the upper side of a thick board with one hand and received on the lower side with the other.
A child is laid down with the stomach bent upwards, boxes full of heavy things are put on its stomach, then a man goes on to the top of the boxes, but still there is no sign of the distended stomach giving way under the weight.
A child is taken and rolled in red calico, the conjurer asks for money and, after a contribution has been given, a sword is displayed and the child yells, then another collection is taken up, after which the child's arm is cut off and thrown to the horrified crowd, and still another collection is taken up, then another arm is cut off and thrown out. The child is thus gradually dismembered before the gazing and credulous crowd, but the greatest wonder of all is that this child will be well and about the next day! This is generally the last and most exciting act of the conjurer in a place; for this he often gets large sums of money in collections.