517 



gave him, as he then sat, a truly diabolical appearance. On with- 

 drawing the instrument, several parts of its surface were covered 

 with blood, which shewed that he was still obliged to use a degree 

 of violence in the introduction. 



" I was at first a good deal surprised at this transaction alto- 

 gether; but when I came to reflect a little upon it, there appeared 

 nothing at all improbable, much Jess impossible in the "business. 

 He told me, on giving him a trifle, that he had been accustomed 

 from his early years, to introduce at first small elastic instruments 

 down his throat, and into his stomach ; that by degrees he had 

 used larger ones, until at length he was able to use the present iron 

 sword. 



" As I mentioned before, the great flexibility of their joints and 

 muscles, the laxness of their fibres, and their temperate mode of 

 life, render them capable of having considerable violence done to 

 the fleshy parts of their bodies, without any danger of the inflam- 

 mation, and other bad effects, which would be produced in the 

 irritable bodies of Europeans; witness their being whirled round 

 on the point of a pole, suspended by a hook thrust into the fleshy 

 part of their backs, without experiencing any fatal consequences. 



" There is, therefore, no great wonder, if by long habit, in 

 stretching up their necks, they are able to bring the different wind- 

 ings of the stomach into a straight line, or nearly so ; and thereby 

 slide down the sword into the latter organ without much difficulty." 



I seldom pitched my tent, or spread a shahmyana near any 

 principal town in Guzerat, but some of these people, or a set of 

 dancing-girls, made their appearance. They generally presented 

 themselves in front of my mud-walled palace at Zinore, when I 



