time of Chaucer's "Tomblesteres."

[Illustration: Fig. 33.--Herodias tumbling. From a MS. end of 13th
century (Addl. 18,719, f. 253b), British Museum.]

That this tumbling and dancing was common in the thirteenth century is
shown by the illustration from the sculpture at Rouen Cathedral (fig.
34), the illustrations from a MS. in the British Museum (fig. 33) of
Herodias tumbling and of a design in glass in Lincoln, and other
instances at Ely; Idsworth Church, Hants; Poncé, France, and
elsewhere. It is suggested that the camp followers of the Crusaders
brought back certain dances and amongst these some of an acrobatic
nature, and many that were reprehensible, which brought down the anger
of the Clergy.

[Illustration: Fig. 34.--A tumbler, as caryatid. Rouen Cathedral, 13th
century.]

In the fourteenth century, from a celebrated MS. (2 B. vii.) in the
British Museum and other cognate sources we get a fair insight of the
amusement afforded by these dancers and joculators. In the
illustration (fig. 35) we get A and C tumblers, male and female; D, a
woman and bear dance; and E, a dance of fools to the organ and
bagpipe. It will be observed that they have bells on their caps, and
it must have required much skill and practice to sound their various
toned bells to the music as they danced. This dance of fools may have
suggested or became eventually merged into the "Morris Dance" (fig.
50) of which some account with other illustrations of "Comic Dances"
will be given hereafter. The man dancing and playing the pipes with a
woman on his shoulder (fig. 36), the stilt dancer with a curious