112 
SHIRAZ. 
middle on the main line let fall the ladder and himself, and was only 
brought up by the strength of his wrists thus fastened to their support. 
He next put on a pair of high-heeled shoes, and paraded about again; 
then put his feet into two saucepans, and walked backwards and for¬ 
wards. After this he suspended himself by his feet from the rope; and 
taking a gun, deliberately loaded and primed it, and, in that pendant 
position, took an aim at an egg (placed on the ground beneath him) and 
put his ball through it. After this he carried on his back a child, whom 
he contrived to suspend, with his own body besides, from the rope, 
and thence placed in safety on the ground. His feats were numerous 
(and as he was mounted on a rope much more elevated than those on 
which such exploits are displayed in England), they were also propor- 
tionably dangerous. A trip would have been his inevitable destruction. 
He was dressed in a fantastical jacket, and wore a pair of breeches of 
crimson satin, something like those of Europeans. The boys danced, 
or rather paced the ground, snapping their fingers to keep time with the 
music, jingling their small brass castanets, and uttering extraordinary 
cries. To us all this was tiresome, but to the Persians it appeared very 
clever. One of the boys having exerted himself in various difficult leaps, 
at last took two kunjurs or daggers, one in each hand ; and with these, 
springing forwards, and placing their points in the ground, turned 
himself head over heels between them; and again, in a second display, 
turned himself over with a drawn sword in his mouth. 
A negro appeared on the side of a basin of water (in which three 
fountains were already playing), and, by a singular faculty which he 
possessed of secreting liquids, managed to make himself a sort of 
fourth fountain, by spouting water from his mouth. We closely ob¬ 
served him : he drank two basins and a quarter of water, each holding 
about four quarts, and he was five minutes spouting them out. Next 
came an eater of fire: this man brought a large dish full of charcoal, 
which he placed deliberately before him, and then, taking up the pieces, 
conveyed them bit by bit successively into his mouth, and threw them 
