CANELOS TO BANGS 155 



work at once we went. Though the crossing these 

 frail bridges is a ticklish operation, it may well be 

 supposed that the fixing them is far more perilous. 

 A bamboo was placed resting towards the base on 

 a stone by the margin ; its point was then elevated 

 considerably by two or three men weighing down 

 the end by their united force ; in this position it 

 was swung round till it hung over the rock on 

 which it was intended to rest, when the point was 

 gradually lowered till the bamboo lay as it was 

 required. By the same process a second bamboo 

 was placed alongside the first, and then a man at 

 the imminent risk of his life crawls along them till 

 reaching the rock whereon they rest. He carries a 

 liana rope attached to the root - end of a third 

 bamboo, which he now, with some help from those 

 on shore, draws after him and places alongside the 

 other two ; the bridge is thus stronger than if all 

 the points were laid the same way. Finally, the 

 bamboos were lashed tightly together by lianas at 

 about every 2 feet, and stones laid on them at 

 each end to keep them firmer. So deafening was 

 the roar of the waters that all these operations were 

 carried on through the medium of signs. A move- 

 ment by the hand to imitate chopping was the 

 signal that a knife or cutlass was wanted, and the 

 hands twirled round one another asked for a roll of 

 liana. The first bridge was short and completed 

 without difficulty, but when they came to throw the 

 bamboos to the second rock, which, as I have said, 

 was much more distant and higher out of the water, 

 it was found that their points merely reached the 

 sloping side of the rock and not to its summit, and 

 that the surging waves every now and then washed 



