CANELOS TO BANGS 155 
work at once we went. Though the crossing these 
frail bridges is a ticklish operation, it may well be 
supposed that the fixing them is far more perilous. 
A bamboo was placed resting towards the base on 
a stone by the margin ; its point was then elevated 
considerably by two or three men weighing down 
the end by their united force ; in this position it 
w^as swung round till it hung over the rock on 
which it was intended to rest, when the point was 
gradually lowered till the bamboo lay as it was 
required. By the same process a second bamboo 
was placed alongside the first, and then a man at 
the imminent risk of his life crawls along them till 
reaching the rock whereon they rest. He carries a 
liana rope attached to the root - end of a third 
bamboo, which he now, with some help from those 
on shore, draws after him and places alongside the 
other two ; the bridge is thus stronger than if all 
the points were laid the same way. Finally, the 
bamboos were lashed tightly together by lianas at 
about every 2 feet, and stones laid on them at 
each end to keep them firmer. So deafening was 
the roar of the waters that all these operations were 
carried on through the medium of signs. A move- 
ment by the hand to imitate chopping was the 
signal that a knife or cutlass was wanted, and the 
hands twirled round one another asked for a roll of 
liana. The first bridge was short and completed 
without difficulty, but when they came to throw the 
bamboos to the second rock, which, as I have said, 
was much more distant and higher out of the water, 
it was found that their points merely reached the 
sloping side of the rock and not to its summit, and 
that the surging waves every now and then washed 
