a six-foot-high gallery in the open net-work of which
lilies, roses and other flowers of gems are inlaid. The dome in
Taj-Mahal produces an echo which is more pleasant, pure and lasting than
any other. A single musical sound produced by the human voice seems to
flow or soar up there like a prolonged, pleasant modulation, which dies
away so slowly that one seems to hear it after it is silent, just as one
seems to see a lark after following it with the eyes after it has
disappeared. Twenty thousand workmen were engaged for twenty-two years
in erecting this mausoleum."

These recollections from India would be incomplete if I should omit to
describe some of the wonderful tricks which I saw performed by Hindoo
jugglers. As I was sitting one day in an open place before the hotel in
Benares, together with some English army officers, an ordinary looking
Hindoo of the lower classes, accompanied by a small boy, appeared before
us, and asked permission to show the mango trick. This being granted,
the boy scraped up some earth on the road before our eyes, and made a
little mound of it on the floor of the open veranda in front of the
hotel. The magician, who had no other garment on than a loosely wrapped
cotton cloth, usually worn by the men, and in his hand a white cloth and
a little bag containing a few sticks and other small implements, stooped
down beside the little mound of earth, and, with his eyes fixed on us,
took a mango kernel about twice the size of a peach stone, which he
planted in the little mound. Having smoothed the mound with his hands he
recited several prayers and incantations, and made some motions over the
mound with a magic wand, carefully assuming an air of expectancy. After
a minute or two we saw the mound slowly opening at the top and the
tender shoot of a plant coming up through the crack. The Hindoo sat with
folded hands, occasionally breathing on the plant, and every now and
then he would invoke some invisible being. Meanwhile the plant grew
taller and more solid, until it finally assumed the shape of a dwarf
tree, which kept growing and sent out branches and leaves. This
development took place gradually and slowly, until finally a ripe mango
fruit was seen hanging down from one of the branches. During this
wonderful performance the magician had only now and then for a moment
covered the plant with the cloth in his hand.

At another time, when I was on the deck of a large steamer, a Hindoo
accompanied b