312 LETTERS ON NATUBAL MAGIC. 



in modern times, in consequence of its having been per- 

 formed in various parts of great Britain by the celebrated 

 traveller Belzoni, before he entered upon the more 

 estimable career of an explorer of Egyptian antiquities. 

 The simplest form of this feat consists in placing a number 

 of men upon each other's shoulders, so that each row con- 

 sists of a man fewer till they form a pyramid terminating 

 in a single person, upon whose head a boy is sometimes 

 placed with his feet upwards. 



Among the displays of mechanical dexterity, though 

 not grounded on any scientific principle, may be mentioned 

 the art of walking along the ceiling of an apartment with 

 the head downwards. This exhibition, which we have 

 witnessed in one of the London Theatres, never failed to 

 excite the wonder of the audience, although the movements 

 of the inverted performer were not such as to inspire us 

 with any high ideas of the mechanism by which they 

 were effected. The following was probably the method 

 by which the performer was carried along the ceiling. 

 Two parallel grooves or openings were made in the 

 ceiling at the same distance as the foot tracks of a person 

 walking on sand. These grooves were narrower than the 

 human foot, so as to permit a rope or chain or strong wire, 

 attached to the feet of the performer, to pass through the 

 ceiling ; where they were held by two or more persons 

 above it. In this way the inverted performer might be 

 carried along by a sliding or shuffling motion, similar to 

 that which is adopted in walking in the dark, and in 

 which the feet are not lifted from the ground. A more 

 regular motion, however, might be produced by a contriv- 

 ance for attaching the rope or chain to the sole of the 

 foot, at each step, and subsequently detaching it. In this 

 way, when the performer is pulled against the ceiling by 

 his left foot, he would lift his right foot, and having made 

 a step with it, and planted it against the grooves, the rope 



