Life and Conditions of the People of Hindustan (1200–1550 A.D.) c7.s3.t3.68

c7.s3.t3.68

Among the famous performances of acrobats and jugglers were those of the *Morchal* (the peacock gait), the display of two acrobats resting on each other, and the ‘Rope-Trick’. The Mughal Emperor Babur describes the *Morchal* somewhat as follows :—The acrobat arranged seven rings, namely, one on his forehead, two on his knees, two of the remaining four on his fingers and the last two on his toes, and set them all revolving, rapidly together. Sometimes two acrobats went on turning over three or four times. One acrobat would set the end of a pole upright on his knee or thigh while the other climbed up the pole and performed his tricks from above. In yet a third case, one dwarfish acrobat climbed up the head of a big one and stood there upright. While the big one was moving about quickly from side to side and showing his tricks, the little one was showing his own on the big one’s head without being affected by the latter’s movements in the slightest degree.⁶