CHA P. III. The author diverts the emperor and his nobility of both fexes in a very uncommon manner. The diverfions of the court of Lilliput described. The author hath his liberty granted him upon certain conditions. Με Y gentleness and good behaviour had gained fo far on the emperor and his court, and indeed upon the army, and people in general, that I began to conceive hopes of getting my liberty in a fhort time. I took all poffible methods to cultivate this favourable difpofition. The natives came by degrees to be lefs apprehenfive of any danger from me. I would fometimes lie down, and let five or fix of them dance on my hand: and at laft the boys and girls would venture to come and play at hide and feek in my hair. I had now made a good progress in understanding and speaking their language. The emperor had a mind one day to entertain me with several of the country shows, wherein they exceed all nations I have known both for dexterity and magnificence I was diverted with none fo much as that of the rope-dancers, performed upon a flender white thread, extended about two feet and twelve inches from the ground. Upon which I shall defire liberty, with the reader's patience, to enlarge a little. This diverfion is only practifed by thofe perfons, who are candidates for great employments, and high favour at court. They are trained in this art from their youth, and are not always of noble birth, or liberal education. When a great office is vacant either by death or difgrace (which often happens) five or fix of those candidates petition the emperor to entertain his majesty and the court with a dance on the rope, and whoever jumps the highest without falling, fucceeds in the office. Very often the chief minifters themfelves are commanded to fhew their skill, and to convince the emperor, that they have not loft their faculty. Flimnap, the treasurer, is allowed to cut a caper on the strait rope at least an inch higher, than any other lord in the whole empire. I have feen him do the summerset several times together upon a trencher, fixed on a rope, which is no thicker than a common packthread in England. My friend Reldrefal, principal fecretary for private affairs, is in my opinion, if I am not partial, the fecond after the treafurer; the reft of the great officers are much upon a par. a Thefe diverfions are often attended with fatal accidents, whereof great numbers are on record. I myself have feen two or three candidates break a limb. But the danger is much greater, when the ministers themselves are com a Summerfet, or fummerfault, a gambol of a tumbler, in which he fprings up, turns heels over head in the air, and comes down upon his feet. manded manded to fhew their dexterity; for, by contending to excel themfelves and their fellows, they strain fo far, that there is hardly one of them, who hath not received a fall, and fome of them two or three. I was affured, that a year or two before my arrival Flimnap would have infallibly broke his neck, if one of the king's cushions, that accidentally lay on the ground, had not weakened the force of his fall. There is likewife another diverfion, which is only fhewn before the emperor and emprefs, and first minifter, upon particular occafions. The emperor lays on the table three fine filken threads of fix inches long; one is blue, the other red, and the third green. These threads are proposed as prizes for those perfons, whom the emperor hath a mind to diftinguish by a peculiar mark of his favour. The ceremony is performed in his majefty's great chamber of ftate, where the candidates are to undergo a trial of dexterity very different from the former, and fuch as I have not obferved the leaft refemblance of in any other country of the old or new world. The emperor holds a stick in his hands, both ends parallel to the horizon, while the candidates advancing, one by one, fometimes leap over the ftick, fometimes creep under it backwards and forwards feveral times, according as the stick is advanced or depreffed. Sometimes the emperor holds one end of the ftick, and his firft minifter the other; fometimes the minifter has it entirely to himself. VOL. II. Whoever D Whoever performs his part with most agility, and holds out the longeit in leaping and creeping, is rewarded with the blue-coloured filk; the red is given to the next, and the green to the third, which they all wear girt twice. round about the middle; and you fee few great perfons about this court, who are not adorned with one of thefe girdles. The horses of the army, and thofe of the royal ftables, having been daily led before me, were no longer fhy, but would come up to my very feet without ftarting. The riders would leap them over my hand, as I held it on the ground; and one of the emperor's huntfmen upon a large courfer took my foot, fhoe and all; which was indeed a prodigious leap. I had the good fortune to divert the emperor one day after a very extraordinary manner. I defired he would order feveral fticks of two feet high, and the thickness of an ordinary cane, to be brought me; whereupon his majefty commanded the mafter of his woods to give directions accordingly, and the next morning fix woodmen arrived with as many carriages, drawn by eight horfes to each. I took nine of these sticks, and fixing them firmly in the ground in a quadrangular figure, two feet and a half fquare, I took four other fticks, and tied them parallel at each corner about two feet from the ground; then I faftened my handkerchief to the nine fticks that ftood erect; and extended it on all fides, till it was tight as the top of a drum; and the four pa rallel rallel sticks, rifing about five inches higher than the handkerchief, ferved as ledges on each fide. When I had finished my work, I defired the emperor to let a troop of his best horfe, twenty-four in number, come and exercise upon this plain. His majesty approved of the propofal, and I took them up one by one in my hands, ready mounted and armed, with the proper officers to exercife them. As foon as they got into order, they divided into two parties, performed mock fkirmishes, difcharged blunt arrows, drew their fwords, fled and purfued, attacked and retired, and in fhort difcovered the beft military difcipline I ever beheld. The parallel fticks fecured them and their horfes from falling over the ftage; and the emperor was fo much delighted, that he ordered this entertainment to be repeated feveral days, and once was pleased to be lifted up, and give the word of command; and, with great difficulty, perfuaded even the empress herself to let me hold her in her clofe chair within two yards of the stage, from whence fhe was able to take a full view of the whole performance. It was my good fortune, that no ill accident happened in these entertainments, only once a fiery horse, that belonged to one of the captains, pawing with his hoof ftruck a hole in my handkerchief, and his foot flipping he overthrew his rider and himself; but I immediately relieved them both, and covering the hole with one hand, I fet down the troop with the other, in the fame manner as I took them up. The horfe D 2 |