THE ARABS AT THE COLOSSEUM.
A PARTY of Bedouin Arabs' three men and a boy, who had been astonishing time Parisians with their feats of muscular strength and ac- tivity, are now attracting the fashionable world to the Colos.eum. Their performances take place on the stage of the saloon in Albany Street, which is fitted up with appropriate scenery ; and commence at three o'clock daily. These men are literally eel-backed ; they twist their bodies in every direction with the litheness of serpents and toss themselves about like fish disporting in the water. They rival PrIMOT, the dancer, in the rapidity of their gyrations, and contioue them much longer, whirling round on one kg with great velocity. Their leaping and tutnbling are extraordinary. They fling surnmersets backwatrds and sideways, making their bands and feet revolve like the spokes of a wheel; and, taking a run, fling themselves round in tile air, picking up a gun from the ground and tiring it off before they reach the ground they also fling back-summersets without the impetus of a rum—" still- vaulting," as It is termed.
Their leaps over two or three men, whose hands are joined above their heads, or who hold a cheraux-de-frise of naked sabres, are more wonderful than Harlequin's jumps; for, instead of falling into a blanket behind the scenes, they alight on their bare feet in the sight of the spectators.
After this whirling and leaping, they form a column of three stand- ing on each other's shoulders ; a tall African forming the base of the human pillar, and the boy, with his body bent backwards into a eirele by linking his feet and hands together, forms the capital, wreathing himself round the neck or waist of the topmost man, who bolds him up on one hand and lifts him about like a bundle; and thus they stalk about the stage—like the Monument taking a walk ! In all this there is nothing revolting or unseemly ; for the ease and apparent enjoyment with which these feats are accomplished remove the idea of danger, even when one of them flings a s llllll nerset holding the points of two bayonets to his body. Their swarthy complexions, spare forms, avid flexible limbs, clad its the native costumes of loose white cotton, and tile gibbering try with which they stimulate each other, ailed by the monotonous tattoo of a tambourine, give a characteristic wildness to the scene.
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