and is simply made, as a glance at Figs. 265, 266, and 267 will prove. Fig. 265 shows a cone made of card-board, the edges of which are stitched or glued together, and the whole covered with white or yellow paper. Fig. 266 is the neck-bone, a stick with a pad of rags or paper tied over the upper end. A sheet, or other plain-colored cloth, is stitched to the cone in such a manner that the drapery will fall down and hide all but the feet and legs of the boy holding the neck-bone (Fig. 267). Some black paint or ink can be used to mark the eyes and mouth on the paper cone, and the only living example of the moa, the giant bird of New Zealand, is ready to be led around the ring before the eyes of the awestruck spectators. For an extra charge the strange bird will even allow one of the smaller spectators to ride its back (the boy’s shoulders) around the ring.
The Manicora
is an imaginary beast, once thought to inhabit America. From all I can learn from old prints it was supposed to be a sort of lion, with a human face. If any of your circus company own a French poodle, or any sort of long-haired dog which can be shaved like a lion, he can make a beautiful manicora by sewing a skirt, long enough to reach below the dog’s collar, on to a cheap false-face. With a little patient work the dog may be taught to walk around the ring with a false-face on. The mask is held in place by tucking the cloth under the dog’s collar.
By using
A Little Ingenuity,
any number of fierce and strange animals can be made, to astonish and please the audience; every boy knows how to make an elephant of two boys covered with a gray shawl, and a giraffe can be made by adding another boy to the moa, so as to give it four legs; but the limited space at my disposal forbids my introducing more diagrams.
Figs. 268-274.—Ring-master and His Costume.