Even the blind beggars, who go along striking on a bell to let
people know that they are blind, as otherwise they might be knocked
over, even they used to stop and listen to my juggler's jokes, though
they could not see his tricks.
"All this was in the street; but sometimes I got him to come into my own
courtyard to do his tricks there, that I might watch him more carefully.
But watch as I might, I could never see how he did this particular
feat. He used to do it with no clothes on except a pair of short
trousers, for in the hot season, you must know, the lower classes of
Chinese go about naked to the waist. Indeed, hot as it is, they don't
wear hats. The juggler possessed both a hat and a jacket, as it
happened, but he took them off when he did his trick."
"And what _was_ the trick?" asked several impatient voices. "What did he
do?"
"He used to swallow ten or twelve needles one after the other, and 'wash
them down' with a ball of thread, which he swallowed next, and by and by
he used to draw the thread slowly out of his mouth, yard after yard, and
it had all the needles threaded on it."
"Oh, Cousin Peregrine!"
"He used to come quite close to me, Maggie, as close as I am to you now,
and take each needle--one after the other--between the finger and thumb
of his right hand--keeping all the other fingers away from it, stick the
point of it for a moment into his other palm, to show that it was sharp,
and then to all appearance swallow it bodily before your eyes.
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