2. Another of the German's feats is shown in Fig. 2. Having fixed the rope above mentioned to a strong post at A, and made it pass through a fixed iron eye at B, to the ring in his girdle, he planted his feet against the post at B, and raised himself from the ground by the rope, as shown in the figure. He then suddenly stretched out his legs and broke the rope, falling back on a feather bed at C, spread out to receive him.
FIG. 2.
FIG. 3.
3. In imitation of Firmus, he laid himself down on the ground, as shown in Fig. 3, 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. 4.
4. The performer then placed his shoulders upon one chair, and his heels upon another, as in Fig. 4, forming, with his back-bone, 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. 3.
5. His next feat was to lie down on the ground, as in Fig. 5. 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. 6, he raises his own body up, and, placing his arms around 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.