258 LETTERS ON NATURAL MAGIC. 



This exhibition, which we have witnessed in one 

 of the London Theatres, never failed to excite 

 the wonder of the audience, although the move- 

 ments 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 ceil- 

 ing, where they were held by two or more per- 

 sons 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 walk- 

 ing in the dark, and in which the feet are lifted 

 from the ground. A more regular motion, how- 

 ever, might be produced by a contrivance 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 would be attached 

 to it, and when the rope was detached from the 

 left foot, it would make a similar step, while the 

 right foot was pulled against the ceiling. These 

 effects might be facilitated and rendered more 

 natural, by attaching to the body or to the feet 

 of the performer strong wires invisible to the 

 audience, and by using friction- wheels, if a 

 sliding motion only is required. 



