AN ODYSSEY OF ODDITIES (continued 2)

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There are about 40,000 direct descendants of Confucius (551-478 B.C.) living in China at the present time.

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Gorgias, of Epirus, was born in a coffin in which his mother lay dead for two hours.

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Babou, Count of Abensberg et de Roye, had 32 sons serving in the army of Henry II of Germany at the same time.

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Stephen Pó̈ździoch was the father of 7 children—each one born in a different country.

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Marie Therese, Empress of Austria, was the mother of 16 children, of whom 2 became emperors and 3 became queens.

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Niels Paulsen, of Upsala, Sweden, died in 1907 at the age of 160 and left two sons—one 9 years old and the other 103 years of age.

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Bishop Heinrich of Luttich, Belgium (1281) was the father of 61 children.

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Madame Jacqueline Montgaste, of Paris, is the mother of 17 children by 14 different husbands.

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Hieronymus, of Rome, married 21 women—his twenty-first wife had had 20 husbands before him.

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King Alphonse of Spain was born a king. He received the oath of fidelity at the age of one month.

AN INDIAN JUGGLER

AN INDIAN JUGGLER’S REMARKABLE FEAT

The following account of a Hindoo who actually lifted a basket of snakes with his eyeballs was written by a young English army officer stationed in Deolai in the Bombay Presidency. He supplemented his letter with several small snapshots of the feat which was unquestionably an authentic performance.

“On my way out to India I heard of many strange and almost unbelievable tricks and feats which the native jugglers were alleged to be able to perform. Needless to say I took every possible opportunity of watching them at work, and saw many things which I could neither understand nor explain.

“I was stationed at Deolai, and shared a tent with Lieutenants Le Mare, of the 1st Royal Irish Fusiliers, and R. MacDonald, of the Yorkshire Regiment. To us there came one day a slim young native accompanied by a grey-bearded assistant, carrying a couple of baskets of snakes and magic paraphernalia. After the ordinary stock of tricks had been performed, such as the basket, mango tree, vanishing ball, etc., the juggler said in his broken English, ‘Sahibs give two rupees, I show good thing.’ When the rupees were produced the juggler took the larger of the two baskets, containing the python, and placed it upon a large cloth, the four corners of which he knotted together with a strong thin rope. At the end of this rope were affixed two little hollow leaden cups.

“These cups the man placed over his eyeballs in such a manner that a vacuum was created; then he shut his eyelids firmly over the outside of the cups, and, rising up from his former squatting position, he lifted the heavy basket containing the snake by the grip of his eyelids and the suction on his eyeballs alone.

“After the feat was finished and the cups had been removed, to the accompaniment of a horrid sucking sound, I examined the man’s eyes, which were horribly bloodshot; moreover, he seemed to have difficulty in seeing for a few minutes, and the tears streamed down his cheeks.

“I have never heard of this feat being performed before or since but I vouch for its authenticity, for both Mr. Le Mare and I took several snapshots which I enclose.”

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