hold of the apple, and immediately thrust it
into his girdle, and would not give it back
again at any price, believing, doubtless, that
he had secured a most incomparable talisman.

For the concluding wonder, the assistance
of an Arab was required. At the solicitation
of several interpreters, a young Moor, some
twenty years of age, tall, well made, and clad
in a rich costume, consented to mount upon
the stage. Bolder, or probably more civilised,
than his brethren of the plain, he resolutely
strode up to the conjuror. He was made to
approach the table, which stood in the middle,
of the stage, and requested to observe (as
also were the spectators) that it was thin
and perfectly isolated. After which, without
further preamble, he was begged to mount
upon it, and was then covered with an
enormous cloth extinguisher open at the top.
Drawing then this extinguisher and its
contents to a plank, whose ends were held by
the operator and his servant, they advanced
with their heavy burden to the footlights,
and there upset the whole. The Arab had
disappeared; the extinguisher was
completely empty!

Then was seen a sight not easy to forget.
The Arabs had been so forcibly impressed
by this last exploit, that, urged by
indescribable terror, they rose in all parts of the
house, and immediately took to a general
retreat. The crowd was especially compact
at the doors of the balcony; the emotion
which the great dignitaries felt was proved
by the hurry they were in to leave the
theatre. In vain one of them, the Caïd of
the Beni-Salah, bolder than his colleagues,
endeavoured to restrain them by shouting,
"Stop! Stop! We cannot allow one of the
faithful to be lost in this way. We must
absolutely know what is become of him, and
what they have done with him. Stop!
Stop!" The faithful ran away, all the same;
and the courageous Caïd, following their
example, soon joined the stream of the
fugitives. They little expected what awaited
them at the doors of the theatre. Scarcely
had they descended the steps of the colonnade,
when they found themselves face to face with
the resuscitated Moor. As soon as the first
alarm was over, they thronged round the
man, felt him, and questioned him, until,
tired of their endless interrogatories, he
took to his heels, as the best thing he
could do.

The well-known gun and extinguisher
tricks had done the business. Thenceforward
the interpreters, and all who had intercourse
with the Arabs, were ordered to explain to
them that these pretended miracles were
merely the result of skill, inspired and guided
by an art called Prestidigitation, which has
nothing whatever to do with sorcery. The
Arabs accepted the explanation; the chiefs
even presented Robert-Houdin with an
address written in verse, and a masterpiece of
native caligraphy. After being sealed by every
member of the deputation, it was delivered
with the speech, "To a merchant, we give
gold; to a warrior, we offer arms; to thee,
Robert-Houdin, we present a testimony of
our admiration, which you may bequeath to
your children. Pardon us for bringing so
little; but would it be right to offer mother-
of-pearl to him who possesses the pearl
itself?" An Arab remarked, "Our
Marabouts will now have to work very
extraordinary miracles indeed, if they wish to
astonish us."

The French Marabout had an opportunity
of witnessing the boasted miracles of his
native rivals, the Aïssaoua, a religious order,
whose profession is the exhibition of
supernatural power. Like the dancing dervishes,
they previously work themselves up to frenzy
in the presence of their chief, the Mokaddem.
When the requisite pitch of madness is
attained, they walk about on their hands and
knees, imitating the movements of quadrupeds.
Their bodies are bathed in perspiration;
you would say that they were impelled
by a muscular force which has ceased to be
under the control of reason, and that they
have forgotten that they are human beings.
It is in this state that they begin their
juggleries. They call the Mokaddem their
father, and ask him for food. To some he
distributes bits of glass, which they crunch
between their teeth; into the mouths of
others he thrusts iron nails, but they
contrive to stick their heads under the
Mokaddem's burnous, so as to reject them unseen
by the spectators.

It was said that the Roman Augurs could
not look at one another without laughing;
the same thing would happen to the Aïssaoua,
if Mussulman blood did not flow in their
veins, so clumsy are their miracles, the
greatest of which are easily explicable. To
thrust a dagger into the cheek is simulated
by pressing the cheek with a poignard as
blunt as a paper-knife. The skin, instead of
being pierced, is simply pushed an inch or an
inch-and-a-half between the molar teeth,
between which gaps are purposely made, exactly
as would happen to a thin sheet of india-
rubber so treated. This trick succeeds
especially with lean and aged persons, who have
the skin of the cheeks very elastic. To eat
the leaves of the prickly pear is easy for
sorcerers, who take care not to show the
Ieaves to prove that they have not undergone
any preparation to render them inoffensive.
But supposing them to show really prickly
leaves, and to change them afterwards for
smooth ones to be eaten, it would only be
a conjuration of the fifteenth magnitude.
Another miracle is performed by two Arabs
holding a sabre, one by the hilt and the other
by the point; a third Arab raises his clothes,
so as to leave his abdomen completely naked,
and then lies down on his belly on the edge
of the sabre, while a fourth mounts on his