PORTER^S JOURNAL. 



125 



of light wood, more or less long according to the stature of 

 the person who is to make use of it. The step is eleven 

 or twelve inches in length, an inch and a half in thickness ; 

 and its breadth, which is four inches at the top, is reduced 

 to half an inch at the bottom. The hind partis hollowed 

 out like a gutter or scupper, in order to be applied against 

 the pole, as a check or fish is, in sea terms, apphed against 

 a niast ; and it is fastened to the pole at the height required 

 by that of the waters, by sennit or lashings of cocoa-nut 

 bass : the upper lashing passes through an oblong hole, 

 pierced in the thickness of the step ; and the lower one 

 embraces, with several turns, the thin part, and confines it 

 against the pole. The projecting part, which I should call 

 the clog, and on which the foot is to rest crosswise, bends 

 upwards as it branches from the pole : this clog is an inch 

 and a half in thickness ; and its shape is nearly that of the 

 prow of a ship, or of a rostrum, or, if the reader please, 

 that of a truncated nautilus. The under part of this sort 

 or shell is slightly striated throughout its whole surface, 

 and the striae commence from the two sides in order to join 

 in the lower part on the middle, and there form a continued 

 web ; its upper surface is almost flat for receiving the foot, 

 and it is in like manner ornamented with striae of no great 

 depth, which form regular series of salient angles and of 

 re-entering angles. The clog is supported by the bust of 

 a human figure, in the attitude of a Cariatides, wrought in 

 a grotesque manner, which greatly resembles a support of 

 the Egyptian kind ; it has below it a second figure of the 

 same kind, but smaller, the head of which is placed below 

 the breasts of the larger one ; the hands of the latter 

 are placed flat on the stomach, and its body is terminated 

 by a long sheath, in order to form the lower and pointed 

 part of the step. The arms, as well as the other parts of 

 the body of the two figures, are angularly striated, like the 

 upper face of the clog. The natives of Santa Christiana 

 make a very dexterous use of their stilts, and would, in a 

 race, dispute the palm with our most experienced herds- 

 men in stalking with theirs over the heaths of Bordeaux. 

 The pains taken by the former in ornamenting with sculp- 

 ture, those which they had invented, may prove that they 

 set on them a great value, for this work, executed on a 

 very hard wood, with the sort of tools which they employ. 



