the use of the verdant and salubrious mud on
which the mighty monster reposed; and when
they placed her, for a still longer period, on a
gigantic gridiron at Milford Haven, a mud fee of
twenty pounds had to be paid. Submarine
telegraph companies pay the Crown a trifle for
permission to carry the cables upon or beneath the
foreshore, in connecting the land portions with
the sea portions. Artists pitch their photographic
booths on the beach in front of pleasure-towns;
and the Crown sometimes makes them pay a few
shillings for permission so to do. At the spruce
little upstart watering-places of Rhyl and
Abergele on the Welsh coast, the lord of the manor
bethought him of charging the bathing-machine
owners; but the Crown said, " No, they must
pay me a trifle, to acknowledge that the right to
the beach is really mine."

We may wind up by informing the reader that
the Queen pays the Queen money every year
for permission to the Queen to make use of bits
of mud belonging to the Queen—in other words,
the Queen's Secretary of State for War pays to
the Queen's Woods and Forests, ten pounds a
year for the use of the foreshore on which the
Shoeburyness gunnery experiments are carried
on; and fifty pounds a year for foreshore on
which fortifications are being built in the Isle of
Portland.

SOMETHING LIKE A CONJUROR.

THOSE who have seen Indian conjurors will
not think much of the poor tricks of American
conjurors, claiming to be no conjurors. In what
follows, the narrator tells what he and a couple
of friends, who had a month's holiday-run in
the Deccan, saw with their own eyes.

Early in the morning, after our arrival at
Poonab, we were lounging in the verandah of
the Dawk bungalow, when a loud tom-tomming
called attention, and we saw a procession entering
the compound of the bungalow. First came
two yellow-looking fellows with long black hair
and red puggerees, beating like madmen with
their horny fingers on a couple of tom-toms.
Then followed three or four boys dragging huge
snakes over their shoulders. Next marched a
tall old man, richly dressed in shawls,
followed closely by two or three coolies carrying
boxes. Some ragged followers with spears
closed the procession. This party went round
to the back of the bungalow, and presently our
syces brought to us the old gentleman in the
shawls, who bowed to the ground, touched his
forehead, mouth, and breast to us, and began a
long address, in which we were plentifully
honoured as protectors of the poor, lords,
masters, and royal highnesses. As for him, he
was a poor snake-charmer, devil-tamer, and
general doctor of magic. He had heard that
some illustrious lord-sahibs had arrived, so
he was come to serve us. If there were any
snakes in the house he would draw them out.
If there were any grey hairs in our heads he
would cause them to fall out and never more
return. If any of our horses were possessed
with a devil, he would cure them. In fact, he
would do anything for us by the power of his
art. We said we had no grey hairs or unruly
horses, but we would like to see some of his
juggling and snake-charming. He replied that
he was our slave, and where should he serve
us : in the verandah or the bungalow? We said
on the sand in front of the verandah, where all
was open, and we could watch his movements.

In a few minutes the whole party came round
from the back of the house, and formed a semicirclewith our servants and followers. In the
middle, with at least ten yards of clear space
around him, sat the conjuror. By his side
squatted a little nigger boy with a large box in
his arms, which, after a word or two in Mahrattee
language from the old conjuror, he opened and
brought for our inspection. On looking in
we saw a mass of cobras twisted in a lump,
lying in a blanket fast asleep. The box was put
on the ground a few yards from the conjuror,
with the lid open. He then produced a sort
of Pan-pipe, and began to play a slow and
mournful air. We, from our post on the
verandah, could look down into the box, and in
a few seconds we saw the snakes beginning to
uncurl. One who was first detached from the
lump, slipped over the side of the box to the
ground. The moment he was on the sand he
stiffened, reared his head, opened the hood
which extended on both sides of his face, and
hissed violently, shooting his tongue very swiftly
in and out. Meanwhile, the charmer began to
play more quickly on his pipe, and the snake,
turning towards him, gradually approached him.
More snakes now rose in the box, some came
out, and others looked over the edge, but all
were hissing and looking venomous. Some
went close to the man and boy, and even crawled
on their clothes. They were handled with the
greatest composure : both the old man and the
boy taking hold of their necks from behind, as a
keeper handles ferrets. But whenever any of
the snakes approached the circle of spectators,
it was broken by a retreat, with great appearance
of dismay. On these occasions the old
man redoubled the energy of his music, and
generally succeeded in enticing the snakes back,
but sometimes the boy had to go and fetch them.
After we had looked at this performance for
some minutes, one of our party observed that he
believed it was all humbug, that their teeth had
been extracted, and their venom-bags cut out.
At any rate, he announced his intention of
collaring the first snake that came near the
verandah. We objected in vain, and when
presently a very active-looking cobra that had
been several times fetched back by the boy,
approached our verandah, and the conjuror had
turned his head away for an instant, with a
sudden dart our friend had it by the back of the
neck, and jumped down with it into the compound,
holding it high over his head, and shouting to
the conjuror that anybody could do that. As soon
as the audience saw what he had done, they set
up a tremendous yell. The old conjuror seemed