Part 24 (1/2)

”You are pretty strong, I suppose?”

”More particularly when I get up after dinner.”

”And you know how to sing?”

”Yes,” replied Pa.s.se-partout, who at one time had sung in the street concerts.

”But can you sing standing on your head with a top spinning on the sole of your left foot, and a sword balanced on your right foot?”

”Something of that sort,” replied Pa.s.se-partout, who recalled the acrobatic performances of his youth.

”Well, that is the whole business,” replied the Honourable Mr.

Batulcar.

And the engagement was ratified there and then.

At length Pa.s.se-partout had found something to do. He was engaged to make one of a celebrated j.a.panese troupe. This was not a high position, but in eight days he would be on his way to San Francisco.

The performance was advertised to commence at three o'clock, and although Pa.s.se-partout had not rehea.r.s.ed the ”business,” he was obliged to form one of the human pyramid composed of the ”Long-Noses of the G.o.d Tingou.” This was the great attraction, and was to close the performance.

The house was crowded before three o'clock by people of all races, ages, and s.e.xes. The musicians took up their positions, and performed vigorously on their noisy instruments.

The performance was very much the same as all acrobatic displays; but it must be stated that the j.a.panese are the cleverest acrobats in the world. One of them, with a fan and a few bits of paper, did the b.u.t.terfly and flower trick; another traced in the air with the smoke of his pipe a compliment to the audience; another juggled with some lighted candles which he extinguished successively as they pa.s.sed his mouth, and which he relit one after the other without for a moment ceasing his sleight-of-hand performances; another produced a series of spinning-tops which, in his hands, played all kinds of pranks as they whirled round--they ran along the stems of pipes, on the edges of swords, upon wires, and even on hairs stretched across the stage; they spun round crystal goblets, crossed bamboo ladders, ran into all the comers of the stage, and made strange music, combining various tones, as they revolved. The jugglers threw them up in the air, knocked them from one to the other like shuttlec.o.c.ks, put them into their pockets and took them out again, and all the time they never ceased to spin.

But after all the princ.i.p.al attraction was the performance of the ”Long-Noses,” which has never been seen in Europe.

These ”Long-Noses” were the select company under the immediate patronage of the G.o.d Tingou. Dressed in a costume of the Middle Ages, each individual wore a pair of wings; but they were specially distinguished by the inordinate length of their noses and the uses they made of them. These noses were simply bamboos from five to ten feet long, some straight, some curved, some ribbed, and some with warts painted on them. On these noses, which were firmly fixed on their natural ones, they performed their acrobatic feats. A dozen of these artists lay upon their backs, while their comrades, dressed to represent lightning-conductors, leaped from one to the other of their friends' noses, performing the most skilful somersaults.

The whole was to conclude with the ”Pyramid,” as had been announced, in which fifty ”Long-Noses” were to represent the ”Car of Juggernaut.”

But instead of forming the pyramid on each other's shoulders, these artistes mounted on each others noses. Now one of them, who used to act as the base of the car, had left the troupe, and as only strength and adroitness were necessary for the position, Pa.s.se-partout had been selected to fill it on this occasion.

That worthy fellow felt very melancholy when he had donned his costume, adorned with parti-coloured wings, and had fixed his six-foot nose to his face; but, at any rate, the nose would procure him something to eat, and he made up his mind to do what he had to do.

He went on the stage and joined his colleagues; they all lay down on their backs, and then another party placed themselves on the long noses of the first, another tier of performers climbed up on them, then a third and a fourth; and upon the noses a human monument was raised almost to the flies.

Then the applause rose loud and long. The orchestra played a deafening tune, when suddenly the pyramid shook, one of the noses at the base fell out, and the whole pyramid collapsed like a house of cards!

It was all owing to Pa.s.se-partout. Clearing himself from the scramble, and leaping over the footlights, without the aid of his wings, he scaled the gallery, and fell at the feet of one of the spectators, crying out, as he did so, ”Oh my master, my master!”

”You!”

”Yes, it is I.”

”Well then, under those circ.u.mstances you had better go on board the steamer.”

So Mr. Fogg, Aouda, who accompanied him, and Pa.s.se-partout hastened out of the theatre. At the door they met the Honourable Mr. Batulcar, who was furious, and demanded damages for the breaking of the ”Pyramid.” Mr. Fogg quickly appeased him by handing him a roll of notes.