DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.5833#0188
166
SCENES IN INDIA.
forth the snake, which he replaced in the box, making a
salaam to the Rajah. This was by no means a pleasing
sight, but his Highness laughed heartily, and threw
the performer a handful of rupees; thus clearly show-
ing that his pleasure was no counterfeit, like the jug-
gler's trick.
The next thing that engaged our attention was a
feat of dexterity altogether astonishing. A woman,
the upper part of whose body was entirely uncovered,
presented herself to our notice, and taking a bam-
boo, twenty feet high, placed it upright upon a flat
stone, and then, without any support, climbed to the
top of it with surprising activity. Having done this,
she stood upon one leg on the point of the bamboo,
balancing it all the while. Round her waist she had
a girdle, to which was fastened an iron socket;
springing from her upright position on the bamboo,
she threw herself horizontally forward with such
exact precision that the top of the pole entered the
socket of her iron zone, and in this position she spun
herself round with a velocity that made me giddy
to look at, the bamboo appearing all the while as if
it were supported by some supernatural agency. She
turned her legs backward until the heels touched her
shoulders, and grasping the ankles in her hands, con-
tinued her rotation so rapidly that the outline of
her body was entirely lost to the eye, and she look-
ed like a revolving ball. Having performed several
other feats ecpjally extraordinary, she slid down the
elastic shaft, and raising it in the air, balanced it
upon her chin, then upon her nose, and finally pro-
jected it to a distance from her, without the application
SCENES IN INDIA.
forth the snake, which he replaced in the box, making a
salaam to the Rajah. This was by no means a pleasing
sight, but his Highness laughed heartily, and threw
the performer a handful of rupees; thus clearly show-
ing that his pleasure was no counterfeit, like the jug-
gler's trick.
The next thing that engaged our attention was a
feat of dexterity altogether astonishing. A woman,
the upper part of whose body was entirely uncovered,
presented herself to our notice, and taking a bam-
boo, twenty feet high, placed it upright upon a flat
stone, and then, without any support, climbed to the
top of it with surprising activity. Having done this,
she stood upon one leg on the point of the bamboo,
balancing it all the while. Round her waist she had
a girdle, to which was fastened an iron socket;
springing from her upright position on the bamboo,
she threw herself horizontally forward with such
exact precision that the top of the pole entered the
socket of her iron zone, and in this position she spun
herself round with a velocity that made me giddy
to look at, the bamboo appearing all the while as if
it were supported by some supernatural agency. She
turned her legs backward until the heels touched her
shoulders, and grasping the ankles in her hands, con-
tinued her rotation so rapidly that the outline of
her body was entirely lost to the eye, and she look-
ed like a revolving ball. Having performed several
other feats ecpjally extraordinary, she slid down the
elastic shaft, and raising it in the air, balanced it
upon her chin, then upon her nose, and finally pro-
jected it to a distance from her, without the application