Next follows the _curvet_, which is performed by throwing the body suddenly backwards until the hands touch the ground. And at the moment they reach the floor a vigorous relaxation of the muscles of the legs makes the acrobat rebound upon his feet. When any one has mastered these three primeval exercises, he may attempt the _somersault forward_ without the aid of his hands. He must now rely upon combining these various acquirements in “acts” of his own invention that will dazzle and astonish the public. The classical performance of a carpet acrobat opens by _bending backward_. It is continued by a _monkey’s somersault_—a decomposition of the somersault backward, by the _rondade_—a curvet backwards, and then by a _somersault_. But vaulters do not end here; each of them varies in an infinite number of ways by the acts of his invention, the outline of his acrobatic career. He introduces an _Arab somersault_ (a somersault from the side, which is obtained by starting from the ground on one foot only); the _lion’s somersault_, which is a _monkey’s somersault forward_; the _coward’s leap_, in which the acrobat, lying upon his back, raises himself by one effort of the loins; the _forward somersault_, a _lion’s somersault_ without the hands, which throws the man, legs in air, head downwards upon the nape [p245] of his neck; the _carp’s leap_, also the sudden spring of an extended acrobat, which raises him to his feet through the relaxation of the muscles of the spine. [Illustration] The _double somersault_ cannot be performed from the carpet without assistance; the artist must spring from the shoulders of a companion, or with the aid of the peculiar spring-board which French _banquistes_ call the _batoude_. With [p246] the _batoude_ Auriol cleared twenty-four bayonets with a _flying somersault_, ended by a _dive_—a jump from a great height.[12] With the _batoude_ specialists have bounded over twenty-four horses, and at the gymnasium Du Marais, belonging to M. Pascaud, last year an amateur, M. Mars, performed a _triple somersault_. This feat is the realization of the highest ambition of those carpet acrobats whom you have so often seen grouped in an apotheosis in one of those _human pyramids_ which rise in a second through the strength of the gymnasts’ biceps, and which fall to pieces like fireworks, in rockets of somersaults. [Illustration] We cannot leave the circus floor without allusion to a series of individuals who exhibit themselves by the side of the genuine acrobats in performances of a special kind. These are the _contortionists_, the india-rubber women—all those who were formerly known by the more general name of _boneless_ acrobats. These boneless or dislocated performers are more numerous in the world than one would imagine. [p247]