ASAM AND THE NEIGHBOURING COUNTRIES. 385 



only in the unevenness and rockiness of the path : the deviations from a 

 right line were not considerable, neither the ascents or descents, and we 

 made good way over the ground. Several cane suspension bridges were 

 passed, and we had an opportunity, for the first time to-day, of seeing the 

 passage made by one of them where we sat to rest, while several men 

 passed to and fro. Accustomed as these men are from their infancy to this 

 mode of crossing rivers, and confident as they must be of the stability of 

 their safety, I observed that each man took every possible precaution before 

 submitting himself to the awful situation of " dangling midway between 

 heaven and earth," suspended on three light canes high above a rapid 

 river eighty yards broad. 



A stage is erected at a considerable height above the water on either 

 bank, and well secured with large stones and canes made fast to the neigh- 

 bouring trees, the three canes composing the suspending rope pass over 

 well secured supports on the stages at either end, and are separately 

 fastened to trees, so that were one of them to prove not trustworthy, two still 

 remain. Before the stages, a number of loops hang ready for use — they are 

 made of a long cane coiled like a roll of wire. The passenger inserts his 

 hands and shoulders through two or three of these and brings them under the 

 small of his back ; he then, or some one for him, secures the loop with great 

 care to a kumurbund contrived for the purpose on the instant, and generally 

 the spear put through the knot helps the security of the fastening, then 

 throwing his heels over the cane, he launches forth on his adventurous pas- 

 sage. The weight of the body altering the natural curve which so large a 

 cane must necessarily have, however well stretched, causes him to descend 

 at first with some rapidity, in which the hands are rather used to arrest the 

 progress ; towards the middle he is master of his pace, and when hanging 

 there the cane is considerably bent from the horizontal line ; now the 

 hands are used to drag the body gradually up the inclined rope ; progress 

 grows slower as he advances, and when near the goal he appears so 



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