His companion followed, and then the two clambered up to
the twenty-feet projection, to clear which they had had to take such a
run the first time, and once more plunged into the pool below. The
feat was of course an easier one than the first; but still a leap of
eighty feet is no light matter. A third native, who joined them in
this exploit, gave one quite a turn as he twisted in his downward
jump; but he also alighted in the water feet foremost, and bobbed up
again directly, like a cork. He was quite a young man, and we
afterwards heard that he had broken several ribs not more than a year
ago, and had been laid up for six months in the hospital.
We now moved our position a little higher up the river, to the Falls,
over which the men, gliding down the shallow rapids above, in a
sitting posture, allowed themselves to be carried. It looked a
pleasant and easy feat, and was afterwards performed by many of the
natives in all sorts of ways. Two or three of them would hold each
other's shoulders, forming a child's train, or some would get on the
backs of their companions, while others descended singly in a variety
of attitudes. At last a young girl was also persuaded to attempt the
feat. She looked very pretty as she started, in her white chemise and
bright garland, and prettier still when she emerged from the white
foam beneath the fall, and swam along far below the surface of the
clear water, with her long black hair streaming out behind her.
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