A ONE-LEGGED GIRL.

Tuapeka Times, Volume III, Issue 118, 12 May 1870, Page 7

A ONE-LEGGED GIRL.

(By Frank Buckland in ' : Land and Water.") After leaving the fire-eating Caffre we paid our admission fee of one penny to see "the one-legged girl." This funny creatui'e was sitting like a Chinese idol on a foot stool, which was placed iv the middle of a small tea table, covered with baize. She appeared to be about sixteen years old. She was in excellent health, rather nice featured, and always laughing; she had no arms whatever, and apparently but one leg. When the proper complement of people were assembled in the room she began her performance by stretching out her one leg, and picking up an ordinary quill pen between her great toe and the toe next to it. She then dipped the pen in ink, and wrote her

name with her foot ; the autograph was a great deal better than thrit of many young ladies and gentlemen who write wii.li their fingers, and not toes. It was very funny to see her tear off the half sheet of paper on which she had written. She did this by steadying it with her foot. In order to test the delicacy of the touch of her toes at my request she turned over some leaves of note paper with her toes. It was marvellous to see how she never missed a page. She then took a needle from a pincushion, and placed it in her left foot ; unwinding some cotton from a reel she next Lit off a length of it after the manner of a female, and passed the thread through the eye of the neadls with the greatest exactitude and promptness, not once taking a bad shot. Reaching out her foot she then pulled towards her a set of tea things, and went through the motion of making tea and pouring it out into the cups, and lifting it to her mouth. The last two performances were the combing and brushing her hair, and then showing how she could use. the scissors ; with the toes she put the scissors on the table, and then passed the great toe and the next one in the rings, holding some writing paper v.'ith her left foot, and twisting it about, she set to work cutting out in paper imaginary portraits of people present which she sold for what she could get. Some years since, I have been told, a man used to exhibit himself in London who had neither arms nor legs, being simply egg-shaped, he used to iix a pen into a socket which he fastened round his chest, and with this he used to write, and I hear even paint pictures. The great power of the human thumb depends upon the preseuce of a certain large muscle which forms the ball of the thumb, it is called the opponens pollicis. By means of this muscle we are enabled to " oppose" the top of the thumb to the tops of all the other fingers. The monkey has not got this muscle, his hand is more like the foot ; it was therefore very interesting to me to observe how this poor onelegged girl had managed to train the muscle of her foot so as to do the duty of the opponens pollicis. These muscles of her foot were very strong and much developed. 1 think it is a great; mistake to shut up the feet of children in ti^ht shoes. When running about the house they should go barefooted ; there is no fear of their catching cold, and they may as well be taught to use their feet as well as their hands. The Lascar sailors, 1 hear, can grasp a rope between their great toes ; they never wear shoes. Just as we were leaving the room the one-legged girl suddenly jumped up, and we had a good chance to see how terribly she was deformed. As I said before, she had no traces whatever of arms, and her right leg, though nominally present, was very short, the foot of it only coming down as far as the knee of the left leg. When she stood up she was ab.out four feet high. She bore her whole weight on this one leg — a regular " monipede." Long practice had enabled her to stand quite firm upon it, and when she wanted to move she hopped about like a kangaroo, without any fear of falling, although she had nothing with which to balance herself.