Alexandria gazette. [volume] (Alexandria, D.C.) 1834-1974, 1875-08-21
THE GAZETTE.
ARAB SINGING AND DANCING.
SATURDAY EVENING ATGTrsT 81

Arab SINGING AND DANCING.
Arab dancing is more curious than pretty,
but It Is strange to you and wild. You would
% sorry to miss seeing it, but must ex plain
20 you that there are some things we may see,
stod some that We may not see. However. nv
friends are very discreet and respectful, and
'hey will arrange with these "almahs" exactly
What they are to dance and what thew are to
s'ng; that they are to be fully clad, and are not
10 exceed 10 raki They have brought five. all
stressed In various colored gauzes, spanples,
ana gold coin ornaments, trowsers frilled and
gathered round the aukle with ring and hair
J"slteo up 10 two long lresses to the knee. You
Zee 10 point OF dress they are far more decent
man our own ballet-girls and that even the
LORD chamberlain could not object to them.
Ihelr instruments are the tom-toln, the tsmbo.
slne' and sort OF zittern. They crack their
ungerS by putting their hands together, By
pulling back the second and third fingers OF
abe left hand with the index foger of the right,
ana by letting them rebound, With noise loud
cr than any castsDets. Their voices are melan-
snoly, nasai and boylsh, and all their songs are
10 minor Key. They used to set my teeth on
Edge at hrst, but have grown to love them
now. | am very fond of music, but I have
never been able to pick up an Arab air. It
'akes a,year before one can perceive the differ.
snoe between one air and another, or whether
it's intended to be joyous or sorrowful; but
after the Initiation the music becomes more ex-
pressive. Even their military bands, like all
'heir music, sound half a note below the con.
cert pitch. You must watch them sing
log: they put on a miserable look, haog
'neir heads sideways, turn their eyes like
dying ducks, and then out comes vail
reminding US Of an aeolian harp hung 10 tree
All sic cross legged iu row upon the dyap.
and they will sing and sway from side to side,
That alnah who was once the best dancer. and
Is DOW the size of six ordinary mortas, can DO
longer dance. We are going to have pas
seul. This girl will move about the room with
little wriggling steps, in time to the music.
nearly double herself backward, and throw her
self IN all sorts of contortions and attitudes till
am convinced that all their bones are made of
Rrlste. One thing which perhaps you will not
understand is that Der dancing means some
Thing, whereas our is only intended for exercise
or TO give people chance Of talking. She has
told you by pantomlme whole histories-of
how she was at home with her mother, and
now she went to market and to the bazaar; how
she did the washing and cooking; how her
father (the Shaykh) wanted to marry her. and
now she didn't want to marry, for that Ali Was
fighting far away 10 the desert. She wonuers
II ne thinks OF her, and she looks at the moon
and knows ne can see it too, and asks when he
will come back Now the music and the stems
change. He is coming back and they are
dressing her to be bis bride; she is walking in
the bridal procession, yelling her face for shame.
And so forth. The performers are clamoring
for raki. l think they deserve little, but we
must not let them have TOO much Now will
ask for my fayorite sword dance. That thin
and graceful girl will take her turn, and des-
cribe to you fight by pautomime. You will
be surprised at the way she can handle cine
ter, as if she had learned broadsword all her
lie. She Whlrls it round her head and
throat, under her arms, over her back like
lightning, and within an inch of our faces. as
II she were slasbng at sixty unseen enemies,
dancing all the time.-The Inner Life of Syria