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P70-(12567)
SNAKE CHARMERS AND JUGGLERS OF INDIA

You never saw such a fine tricks as these jugglers can do. And they are snake charmers, too. Those are poisonous snakes they hold in their hands. But the snakes do not bite their masters. The man in the middle is playing a sort of tune to them on that strange-looking pipe. He says this makes the snakes happy.

One boy is holding a little animal called a mongoose. These animals are wild in India. Every mongoose is an enemy of every snake. Should you think such a little animal could kill a big, poisonous snake? He dances around until he can bite with his sharp teeth through the snake's backbone. That is the end of the snake.

One trick these jugglers can do is this: One of them squats down as you see. He makes a little mound of earth in front of him. He plants a mango seed in the mound. Then he covers the mound with a large piece of cotton cloth. Soon the cloth begins to move. It lifts higher and higher. In a few minutes the juggler takes off the cloth. There in the mound where he planted the mango seed is growing a little mango tree maybe six inches high. It is a real tree -green and fresh and lovely. How did he do it?

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