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.
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