LIFTING HEAVY PERSONS. 257 



At Venice, the experiment was performed in 

 a much more imposing manner. The heaviest 

 man in the party was raised and sustained upon 

 the points of the fore-fingers of six persons. 

 Major H. declared that the experiment would 

 not succeed if the person lifted were placed upon 

 a board, and the strength of the individuals 

 applied to the board. He conceived it necessary 

 that the bearers should communicate directly 

 with the body to be raised. I have not had an 

 opportunity of making any experiments relative 

 to these curious facts ; but whether the general 

 effect is an illusion, or the result of known or of 

 new principles, the subject merits a careful in- 

 vestigation. 



Among the remarkable exhibitions of mechani- 

 cal strength and dexterity, we may enumerate 

 that of supporting pyramids of men. This ex- 

 hibition is a very ancient one. It is described, 

 though not very clearly, by the Roman poet 

 Claudian, and it has derived some importance in 

 modern times, in consequence of its having been 

 performed in various parts of Great Britian 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 on each 

 other's shoulders, so that each row consists 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. 



