Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1874-04-18
CITY CIRCULATION.
MEMPHIS TENN. SATURDAY EVENING APRIL 18, AZ
The Dance.

On the Sth of August, at 9 o clock in
the morning, the piercing note of a
hageolet was to be heard at a half
leagues distance from Faux Bonnes,
and the bathers set out for Aas. The
way there is by narrow road, cut in the
Montague Verte, and overhung with Law
ender and punches of wild flowers. We
entered upon street six feet in width
it is the main street Scarlet-capped
children, wondering at their own mag
nifcence, stood bolt upright in the door
ways and looked on in silent admira-
ton. The public square, at the side of
the lavatory, is as large as small room
it is here that the dances take place.
Two hogsheads had been set up, two
planks upon the hogsheads, two chairs
upon the planks, AID on the chairs two
musicians, the whole surmounted by two
splendid blue umbrellas which did SER
vice as parasols; for the sky was brazen,
and there was not a tree on the square.
The whole formed an exceedingly
pretty and original picture. Under the
roof OF the lavatory group of old
women leaned against the pillars in
talk; a crystal stream gushed forth and
ran down the slated gutter; three small
children stood motionless, with wide
open, questioning eyes. The young
men were at exercise in the pathway,
playing at base. Above the esplanade,
on points Of rock forming shelves, the
women looking down on the dance, in
holiday costume-a great scarlet hood,
a body embroidered in silver or IN silk
with violet flowers, a yellow, long fringed
shawl, black petticoat hanging in folds
close to the figure, and white wooden
\ CATERS. These strong colors, the Law
ished red, the refexes of the silk under
dazzling light we're delightful. About
the two hogsheads was wheeling, with a
supple, measured movement, a sort of
roundelay, to an odd and monotonous
air, terminated by a shrill false note Of
startling effect. A youth in wooden vest
and breeches led the band; the young
! girls moved gravely, without talking or
| laughing; their little sisters at the end
of the file took great pains in practieing
the step, and the line of purple capulets
slowly waved like a crown of peonies.
Occasionally the leader of the dance
gave a sudden bound with savage cry,
and recalled to our mind that we were
in the land of bears, in the heart OF
the mountains.
Was / right? Is there single thing
here out of harmony with the rest, and
which the sun, the climate, the soil, do
not make suitable2 These people are
poets. They must have been in love
with the light to have invented these
splendid costumes Never would a
northern sun have inspired this feast OF
color-their costume harmonizes with
their sky. In Flanders they would look
like monntebanks-here they are as
beautiful as their country. You nc
longer notice the ugly features the sun
burnt faces, the thick, knotty hands, that
yesterday offended you-the sun en-
livens the brilliancy Of the dresses
and in that golden splendor all uglines'
disappears. / have seen people who
laughed at the music" The air is mo
notonous," they say, contrary to all
rule, it has no ending; those notes art
false" At Paris that may be; but here
no. Have you remarked that wild anC
original expression2 How it suits thu
landscape! That air could have sprung
up nowhere but among the mountains
The frou-frou of the tambourine is az
the languid voice of the wind wher
it coasts the narrow valleys; the
shrill tone of the Aageolet is the
whistling of the breeze when it is heard
on the naked SUBMITS; that final note is
the cry of the hawk in the depths of the
air; the mountain sounds, too, are recog-
nizable, hardly transformed by the
rhythm of the song. And then the
dance is as primitive, as natural, as
suitable to the country as the music =
they 90 wheeling about hand in-hand
What could be more simpler 1t is thus
that the children do at their play, The
step is supple and slow-that is as the
mountaineer walks. You know by ex
perience that you must not be in toe
much haste if you would climb, and that
here the stiff strides of town-bred mau
will bring him to the ground. That
leap, that seems to you so strange, IS
one Of their habits, hence one of their
pleasures. To make up festival, they
have chosen what they found agreeable
among the things to which their eyes,
ears and legs were habituated. Is not
this festival, then, the most national, the
truest, the most harmonious, and hence
the most beautiful that can be imag-