3. In imitation of Firmus, he laid himself down on the ground, as shown in Fig. 54, and when an anvil A was placed upon his breast, a man hammered with all his force the piece of iron B, with a sledge hammer; and sometimes two smiths cut in two with chisels a great cold bar of iron laid upon the anvil. At other times a stone of huge dimensions, half of which is shown at C, was laid upon his belly, and broken with a blow of the great hammer.
Fig. 54.
4. The performer then placed his shoulders upon one chair and his heels upon another, as in Fig. 55, forming, with his backbone, thighs, and legs, an arch springing from its abutments at A and B. One or two men then stood upon his belly, rising up and down while the performer breathed. A stone, one and a half feet long, one foot broad, and half a foot thick, was then laid upon his belly, and broken by a sledge-hammer; an operation which may be performed with much less danger than when his back touched the ground, as in Fig. 54.
Fig. 55.
5. His next feat was to lie down on the ground, as in Fig. 56; a man being then placed on his knees, he draws his heels towards his body, and, raising his knees, he lifts up the man gradually, till having brought his knees perpendicularly under him, as in Fig. 57, he raises his own body up, and placing his arms round the man’s legs, he rises with him, and sets him down on some low table or eminence of the same height as his knees. This feat he sometimes performed with two men in place of one.
Fig. 56.
Fig. 57.