firmly in the ground a bamboo nearly thirty feet
high, and while thus engaged, another man singing in a monotonous voice,
was running round and round it. Presently a woman who was standing by,
leaped on the shoulder of the running man, who did not stop, but
continued his course as before, rapidly increasing his speed. In
another minute she had leaped on his head, and there she stood with
perfect steadiness, while he ran still faster, and the old man beat the
drum louder and louder, shrieking all the time, even more shrilly than
before, till the noise became almost deafening.

"While our senses were somewhat bewildered by the sound, the boy ran up
to the running man with a large earthen pot, which the latter in a
wonderful way placed on his head; the woman having, I suppose, in the
meantime put her feet on his shoulders, for before I could follow her
movements she appeared standing on the top of the pot, the man still
running round as before.

"The man who had been fixing the pole in the earth, now advanced, and
taking up a heavy stone ball which it would have required a strong man
to lift even a few inches from the ground, began playing with it,
catching it now on one shoulder, now on the other, then in his hands,
and on his arms and feet. Next he threw up two ivory balls, quickly
adding others in succession, till there were no less than eight kept in
motion at the same time, flying up in the air.

"The first party, who had in the meantime been resting, now arranged a
flat circular brass dish, of considerable size, on which were placed
four pillars about three inches high. These were connected by four
sticks, with other sticks above them, and then more pillars, and so on,
till there were fully thirty pillars one above another, with a brass
dish on the top of all. We thought it surprising that this structure
could stand as it did, but greater was our amazement to see it lifted on
the man's head while he was circling round the post, and still more
astonished were we, when the woman sprang like lightning up in the air
and stood on the top of all, as steadily as if she was on the ground,
while the man continued rapidly circling round.

"After this, one of the men leaped on the shoulders of the other, who
was standing close to the pole, and then the woman making use of them as
a ladder, sprang to the very top of the pole, on the point of which she
lay in a horizontal position, when one of the men who had followed her