Life and Conditions of the People of Hindustan (1200–1550 A.D.) c7.s3.t3.62

c7.s3.t3.62

performers earned a modest living by making rams dance in market places, or by dancing their monkeys to various measures.¹ The tight-rope walker and the puppet showman were familiar figures of fairs and other crowds.² The snake-charmer was occupied with his work as he is to-day.³ In Bengal a man sometimes went about the street with a collared tiger. When he began his performance, he unfastened the animal and started pulling, knocking and kicking the animal about until it was in an apparently furious rage and sprang upon him. Both man and animal then rolled down for a minute and the performer ostentatiously thrust his bare arms into the throat of the animal who dared not bite him. Then he collected money and gifts from the crowd of amused spectators and thus maintained himself and the animal.⁴ Sometimes, in the South, an elephant was made to dance to the accompaniment of music and raised his trunk to mark time.⁵