Hindu Manners, Customs and Ceremonies - DUBOIS, Abbé Hindu Manners, Customs and Ceremonies, Dubois | Page 114

JUGGLERS AND QUACKS 71 Ebcci >rded in Europe to people of the same description. of these charlatans cany on a trade with a credulous Some They public in quack medicines and universal panaceas. may often be heard in the street haranguing the multitude and extolling their wares. They even surpass our own quacks in effrontery and barefaced imposture. Others are and both one and the other perform conjurers or acrobats Euro- really astonishing feats of legerdemain and agility. pean jugglers would certainly have to lower their colours before them. The best known of these castes is that of the Bombers or Dombarus. To the earnings which the men make by their industry the women also add the sums that they gain by their favours, if such a the most shameless immorality word be applicable, are accorded to any one who likes to pay for them. However, in spite of all this, the Dombers and their extreme poverty is caused lead a wretched life ; ; ; They always spend in and drinking much more than they actually possess and when all their means are exhausted they have recourse by their boundless intemperance. eating ; to begging. Other troops of vagabonds of the same class adopt the I once met a large party profession of travelling actors. who were representing the ten Avatars (or incarnations) of Vishnu, on which subject they had composed as many sacred plays. The greater number of them, however, play obscene and ridiculous farces in the streets, with boards and trestles for their stage or else they exhibit marionettes, which they place in disgusting postures, making them give utterance to the most pitiable and filthy nonsense. These shows are exactly suited to the taste and comprehension Hindu of the stupid crowd which forms the audience. players have learned from experience that they can never rivet the attention of the public except at the expense of decency, modesty, or good sense l Some Hindu jugglers turn their attention to snake- charming, especially with cobras, the most poisonous of all. These they teach to dance, or to move in rhythm to ; . At the present time there are many Indian theatrical eompanies formed somewhat after the fashion of European eompanies. Their per- Ed. formances, too, have improved a great deal since the Abbe's time. 1