166 
SCENES IN INDIA. 
forth the snake, which he replaced in the box, making a 
salaam to the Rajah. This was by no means a pleasing 
sight, but his Highness laughed heartily, and threw 
the performer a handful of rupees ; thus clearly show- 
ing that his pleasure was no counterfeit, like the jug- 
gler’s trick. 
The next thing that engaged our attention was a 
feat of dexterity altogether astonishing. A woman, 
the upper part of whose body was entirely uncovered, 
presented herself to our notice, and taking a bam- 
boo, twenty feet high, placed it upright upon a flat 
stone, and then, without any support, climbed to the 
top of it with surprising activity. Having done this, 
she stood upon one leg on the point of the bamboo, 
balancing it all the while. Round her waist she had 
a girdle, to which was fastened an iron socket ; 
springing from her upright position on the bamboo, 
she threw herself horizontally forward with such 
exact precision that the top of the pole entered the 
socket of her iron zone, and in this position she spun 
herself round with a velocity that made me giddy 
to look at, the bamboo appearing all the while as if 
it were supported by some supernatural agency. She 
turned her legs backward until the heels touched her 
shoulders, and grasping the ankles in her hands, con- 
tinued her rotation so rapidly that the outline of 
her body was entirely lost to the eye, and she look- 
ed like a revolving ball. Having performed several 
other feats equally extraordinary, she slid down the 
elastic shaft, and raising it in the air, balanced it 
upon her chin, then upon her nose, and finally pro- 
jected it to a distance from her, without the application 
