dentation to keep it in its place on the nail. He raised the plate in
the air and inserted into the first pole another of equal length, then
another and still another, which put the plate whirling in the air
thirty feet high.

Thus whirling he balanced it on his hand, on his arm, on his thumb, on
his forehead, and finally in his mouth, after which he tossed the plate
up, threw the pole aside and caught it as it came down. The old manager
standing by received the pole, but as he saw the plate tossed up, he
fell flat upon the earth, screaming lest the plate be broken.

This same performer set a bowl whirling on the end of a chop-stick.
Then tossing the bowl up he caught it inverted on the chop-stick, and
made it whirl as rapidly as possible. In this condition he tossed it up
ten, then fifteen, then twenty or more feet into the air catching it on
the chop-stick as it came down.

He then changed the process. He tossed the bowl a foot high, and struck
it with the other chop-stick one, two, three, four or five times before
it came down, and this he did so rapidly and regularly as to make it
sound almost like music. There is a record of one of the ancient poets
who was able to play a tune with his bowl and chop-sticks after having
finished his meal. He may have done it in this way.

This trick seemed a very difficult performance. It excited the
children, and some of the older persons clapped their hands and
exclaimed, "Very good, very good." But when he tossed it only a foot
high and let go the chop-stick, making it change ends, and catching the
bowl, they were ready for a general applause. In striking the bowl and
thus manipulating his chop-sticks, his hands moved almost as rapidly as
those of an expert pianist.

"Can you toss the knives?" piped up one of the children who had seen a
juggler perform this difficult feat.

The man picked up two large knives about a foot long and began tossing
them with one hand. While this was going on a third knife was handed
him and he kept them going with both hands. At times he threw them
under his leg or behind his back, and at other times pitched them up
twenty feet high, whirling them as rapidly as possible and catching
them by the handles as they came down.

While doing this he passed one of the knives to the attendant who gave
him a bowl, and he kept the bowl and two knives going. Then he gave the
attendant another knife and received a ball, and the knife, the ball
and the bowl