102 SIX MONTHS IN MEXICO. 



In the evening we attended an itinerant 

 kind of theatrical exhibition, consisting of 

 interludes, rope-dancing, tumbling, &c. Some 

 of the feats were exactly the same as those 

 described to have been performed before 

 Cortez, on his first arrival; and such as I 

 have not seen in Europe. A fellow placed 

 himself on the ground, raised his bare feet, 

 and received on them a beam of wood, 

 eight feet long, and eight inches thick ; this 

 he threw several times into the air, catching 

 it again on the soles of his feet ; he then 

 caused it to spin round like the fly of a 

 jack, — when, changing his manner of striking 

 it, he made it turn lengthways, with great 

 velocity throwing it from one foot to the other, 

 so that the bells fastened to the ends of it kept 

 time to the music. After amusing us awhile 

 in this way, he rested for a few minutes, when 

 two boys were suspended at the ends of the 

 beam, which he again balanced and threw 

 with them into the air, receiving them al- 



