THE JAPANESE JUGGLETS.

Westport Times, Volume III, Issue 403, 14 November 1868, Page 2

THE JAPANESE JUGGLETS.

The company of Japanese jugglers and acrobats now on a visit to the colonies have lately performed at InvercargiU aud Dunedin, and have created quite a sensation. To describe the entertainment is almost impossible ; it must be seen to be credited. First the beautiful illusion, " The flight of the butterflies," was executed. "With a bouquet in one hand and a fan in the other, one of the performers caused artificial flies made in the presence of the audience to imitate the motions of the natural insect. To circle in the air, to make sudden swift darts through 'space, and to apparently light and sip the flowers, was all done so easily that the illusion was complete. The first portion of the programme closed with what was styled a " Japanese Sensation :" aud sensational it was indeed. Imagiue a long bamboo rod balanced on the shoulder, and clinging to the top of it a boy, who while it was bent with his weight and swinging about in the air, went through all kinds of feats, placing his body in all kinds of positions except the perpendicular, and all the time the performer at the foot playing a tune on a Japanese instrument. Then followed a feat called the Kihola. Here an immense wooden frame was balanced on the feet of one of the troupe. The boy before spoken of ascended ladders in the frame, went in andoutinall positions, and while concealed behind* its paper covering masked himself, changed his costume, and on his arrival at the top went through the most extraordinary evolutions. The juggling with balls, fans, knives, chopsticks, and the magic bottle, which followed, was wonderfully clever. But, the performance of Cuts-who-

Cero was the most astonishing of all. Sho trod thin ropes as if they wero broad pavements, turned and twisted in evcvy direction, and while the lines were swaying to and fro rapidly daiiced what was apparently a Japanese jockey dance. '