This formed a V shape, and you walk on the point of the
V and hold on by the two sides. The breadth of the river is sixty yards,
and the bridge which is high above the water forms a considerable curve.
The description of the bridge is easy enough, but how shall I describe
my feelings, when I had gone a few yards and found myself poised in
mid-air like a spider on a web, oscillating, swaying backwards and
forwards over a foaming and roaring torrent, the rush of the water if I
looked at my feet, made me feel as if I was being violently carried in
the opposite direction; the bridge swayed and jumped with the weight of
half a dozen natives coming from the opposite side whom I had to pass,
the whole thing seemed so weak and the danger so terrible that I turned
giddy, lost my head, and cried out to be held. A firm hand at once
grasped me behind and another in front. I shut my eyes and so proceeded
a few yards. Then those dreadful men had to be passed. Imagine meeting
a man on a rope fifty feet above a torrent and requiring him to "give
you the wall." However they were passed by a mysterious interlacing of
feet; and when half way over I regained confidence, and bid the men
"chando" or release me, and so gained the opposite bank, where I sat
down and roared with laughter at my "boy" who was then coming over, and
who evidently was much more affected than I was.
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