Travels in India (Tavernier) 13.2

13.2

Next, having taken a small piece of stick, and having planted it in the ground, they asked one of the company what fruit he wished to have. He replied that he desired mangoes and then one of the conjurers, covering himself with a sheet, stooped to the ground five or six times. I had the curiosity to ascend to a room in order to see from above, through an opening of the sheet, what this man did, and I saw that he cut himself under his arm-pits with a razor, and anointed the piece of wood with his blood. At each time that he raised himself, the stick increased under the eye, and at the third time it put forth branches and buds. At the fourth time the tree was covered with leaves, and at the fifth we saw the flowers themselves. The President of the English had his clergyman with him, having taken him to Ahmadabad to baptize a child of the Dutch Commander, of whom he had been asked to be the godfather, for it should be remarked that the Dutch have no clergymen save in those places where they have both merchants and soldiers together.