LATEST TELEGRAMS

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume XII, Issue 827, 6 February 1868, Page 2

LATEST TELEGRAMS

By telegrams to Dunedin up to Friday last we learn the following items of news : Business in Melbourne is dull. Prince Alfred’s reception at Sydney has been quite equal to that given at Melbourne. Upwards of five hundred 3ong birds have been received by the Warrior Queen in fine condition. The population of Dunedin and its suburbs, according to the census returns recently taken,is 19,000. The wool ship Salween, from Brisbane, bound to London, has put into Sydney harbour on fire.

THE LAST LONDON SENSATION. On a Monday afternoon the large room of the Egyptian Hall, Picadilly, was the theatre of some most remarkable performances, by a company of Arabs who have recently been exhibiting in Paris, and who describe themselves, or are described by their manager, as “the tribe of AissaHouha, the African Convulsionaires, snakecharmers, tire-eaters, and conjurors.” These performers are only seven in number, and therefore, we (Daily Times from whom we are quoting) apprehend, form but a portion of the tribe in question, who, it is said, claim for themselves the power of eating, without danger, anything that may be offered to them : and certainly, if the remainder of the tribe share- the peculiarities of those individuals whose feats we witnessed on Monday afternoon, they must be a most omnivorous people. Their common food would seem to be burning charcoal or lighted torches, while they derive an agreeable variety of diet from chewing wine glasses, the prickly leaves of the cactus, or the fiesli of live snakes, or swallowing sharp edged pebbles, and tenpenny nails. Ncr are their peculiarities confined to mere matters of diet. Their amusements are equally exceptional in their nature. To balance oneself upon a naked sword, or to allow two strong men to press a similar instrument against one’s bare stomach, is a diversion from which most Englishmen would shrink with repugnance and alarm ; but to these curious strangers it appears to be a matter of perfect indifference —indeed rather an agreeable relaxation than otherwise; while, when the desire for sport is strong upon them, they will run swords into their bodies, carry about serpents hanging to their tongues, pierce their mouths and cheeks with long needles, or rather skewers, or allow a dozen strong men to haul at a l’ope which is twisted round their bodies until one would imagine that all their internal organs must be squeezed into a jelly, and the cordage appears to be gradually entering into the flesh of the abdomen. And after going through all this they show no marks of suffering, but dance with more vehemence than ever to the hideous music of the tom toms, the beating of which accompanied all their performances, and by the vile sounds of which detestable. instrument they are supposed to be excited to a condition of religious fervour, which can only find suitable expression in these strange proceedings. Curious as are these tricks —and tricks we presume they are, although we confess ourselves unable to penetrate the secret of the allusions—they are by no means altogether agreeable to witness ; but another, in which one of the performers appears to remove, or actually remove, to all appearances, his eye from the. socket with the point of sword, is absolutely revolting. The audience on Monday afternoon was composed entirely of men, but even for some of them this part of the performance was a little too strong. In the presence of ladies it would be quite inadmissable. The performers were watched most closely, but as far as we are aware no one who was present detected the secret by which they were enabled to execute these wonderful tricks. When one of the Arabs eat a wine-glass you could hear him champing the material with his teeth, while the heat of the burning charcoal which another of them held m his mouth was tested by the simple but effectual expedient of lighting vesuvians at the pieces while they were between his lips. The same man exposed his face and neck to the influence of a flame which not only did not burn his skin, but did not even singe a slight beard and moustache with which his sable countenance was ornamented ; while another held a bundle of flaming brands under his shirt, and in close proximity to his naked flesh, without appearing to sustain any inconvenience. The performance was only a kind of rehearsal. When the public are invited to be present in order to witness these marvels we should recommend that some restrain should be imposed upon the exertions of the performers on the tom toms, whose monotonous strains are almost more excruciating than the hideous melodies by which the performances of the Japanese tumblers are accompanied.