Note 34 — Chapter VII · THE INDIAN BASKET TRICK.

We will not venture to question the fact, vouched for by so high an authority as Robert-Houdin, that the Indian Basket Trick may sometimes be performed after the manner above described, but we doubt very much whether such is the usual or customary method. It will be remarked that Robert-Houdin does not claim to have himself seen the trick performed by Indian jugglers, nor does he name his informant; and it may be taken as an axiom that no person is qualified to give a correct description of even the simplest conjuring trick unless he be himself a conjuror. The recent performances of some Hindoo jugglers (warranted to be the genuine article) at the London Aquarium, have revealed to keen observers the fact that nine-tenths of their much-vaunted tricks rest on the simple expedient of burying articles in the ground beforehand (probably in some convenient receptacle) to be clawed up again in due time with the fingers, under cover of much pottering beneath shawls and inverted baskets. The great “Basket Trick” itself was worked by the performers in question on the same principle; the basket being screened from view for some moments by a fence of heavy drapery (which fact the uninitiated spectator invariably omits to mention in describing the trick), and the boy disappearing by means of a trap-door through the stage and its superincumbent layer of earth, and coming into the room again from some other quarter, while the principal performer marched gravely round the basket, to obliterate the traces of his passage. This plan could not, obviously, be carried out in its entirety in India, where the jugglers almost invariably perform in the open air. But what is there to prevent the conjuror, or his “agent in advance,” quietly preparing for action by digging, at some convenient opportunity beforehand, a hole at the spot where the performance is afterwards to come off, and burying a good-sized basket therein? When the critical moment arrives, the boy has only to creep out of the visible and into the invisible basket, whence he can shriek and cry for mercy to any extent, while the juggler tramples the earth into good condition again, and goes through the stabbing performance, afterwards showing the basket empty. Meanwhile another little black boy comes running from some external hiding-place, and thereby effectually diverts the minds of the spectators from a too close examination of the basket, or of the ground beneath it. When the performance is over, and the troupe are packing up their belongings to depart, there will be but little difficulty in bringing the buried boy to light again, the basket being left still in the earth to be fetched away a few hours later, when there is no longer any fear of observation.

It is obvious that the use of the above expedient would not be always practicable. The performer must sometimes be called upon for a specimen of his powers where no previous preparation is possible. In such a case he has another “string to his bow,” depending on the peculiar shape of the basket used, which is a short oblong, large at the bottom, but tapering upwards to the top, of which the lid occupies only the centre portion. In a basket so shaped the lithe and agile Hindoo boy coils himself without difficulty against the outer surface, leaving the centre free to receive the stabs of the sword, and finally to admit the performer, who steps inside and stamps freely to prove the basket empty, while any lingering doubt is removed by the appearance of the boy himself (really his double) outside the circle of spectators.—Ed.