470 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



able to run long distances witliont ap]3reciable fatigue. Formerly, 

 on market days at Bordeaux, long lines of peasants could be seen 

 arriving on stilts, who, though encumbered with sacks and bas- 

 kets, had come from villages ten, fifteen, or twenty leagues and 

 farther away. Now, the sight of a man on stilts is almost as 

 great a curiosity in Bordeaux as in Paris. The peasant of the 

 Landes comes to the city in a wagon or by railroad. 



Stilts are of common use in the Belgian city of Namur, a town 

 which formerly suffered from the periodical overflows of the Sam- 

 bre and the Meuse. The streets were at such times converted into 

 streams or ponds, and the inhabitants could communicate with 

 one another only by means of boats or on stilts. This condition 

 has been remedied by suitable public works, but the taste for 

 stilt-races and for the organization of societies of stiltsmen has 

 lasted till the present time. 



It is said that the stiltsmen of Namur once procured a valuable 

 privilege for their city. The governor had promised the Arch- 

 duke Albert to send a band of warriors to meet him who should 

 not be on foot or on horseback. He fulfilled his promise with the 

 assistance of two companies of stiltsmen, who performed their 

 evolutions in the archduke's presence. He was so pleased with 

 the spectacle that he gave a perpetual exemption to the city of 

 Namur from the beer-tax. The gratitude of the ])eople toward 

 their stiltsmen, and the esteem in which sports with stilts are 

 held by the youth of Namur, are easily comprehended. 



Travelers have seen stilts in ordinary use by natives of several 

 islands of the ocean, especially in Santa Christina of the Marque- 

 sas. Here, as in other places, the usage is in consequence of a 

 climatic peculiarity. During the rainy season the lower parts of 

 the island, the surface of which presents few inequalities, are full 

 of marshes, and stilts have been employed from time immemorial 

 as a means of communication over them. It is worthy of remark 

 that the stilts of savage jieoples are vastly more ingenious and 

 elegant than those of the Landais shepherds. Marquesan stilts 

 may be seen at the Ethnographic Museum of the Trocadero and 

 the Marine Museum in the Louvre adorned with really artistic 

 designs and curious sculptures, mostly made with the aid of fire. 



Independently of the considerations of facility of communica- 

 tion which have made the use of stilts necessary in some coun- 

 tries, the thought of mounting sticks of greater or less height, in 

 order to appear larger or to excite the curiosity of spectators, 

 seems to have occurred at all times and in all countries. In nu- 

 merous masquerades artificial giants may be seen — persons who, 

 having thus mounted stilts, excite the admiration of the people. 

 They are a feature of the Italian masquerades. Gigan and his 

 wife are one of the attractions of the carnivals of Lille and Dun- 



