Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1875-08-05
Arab Dancing.

~ A WRITER says: You must understand
tilat Arab dancing is more curious than
pretty, but it is strange to you, and wild.
iou would be sorry to miss seeing it.
Ihey have brought five, all dressed in va
flous-colored gauZes and spangles and
goldcoin ornaments, trousers frilled and
gathered round the ankle with ring and
halr plated in two long tresses to the
knees. You see, in point of dress they
are far more decent than our own ballet.
girls, and that even the Lord Chamberlain
could not sect to them. Their instru-
nehts are the tom-tom, the tambourine
and sort OF zittern. They crack their
fingers by putting their hands together,
bypulling back the second and third finoers
OF the left hand with the index finger of
the right, and by letting them rebound,
with noise louder than any castanets
Their voices are meladcholy. nasal and
boylsh, and all their songs are il. a minor
key. They used to set my teeth on edge
at first, 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 takes year before one can ner-
ceive the difference between one air and
another. or whether it is intended to be
Joyous or s0rrowfuI; but after this initia-
ton the music becomes most expressive
Even their military bands, like all their
music, sound half a note below concert
pitch. You must watch them singing
They put on miserable look, hang Their
heads sideways, turning up their ewes like
dying ducks, and then out comes a wal
reminding one of an -d1olian harp huns
in tree. All sit cross-legged in a row
upon the divan, and they will sing anC
sway from side to side. That a7mah, who
was once the best dancer, and is now the
size of six ordinary mortals, car
no longer dance. We are. going tc
have, pas seal. This girl will
move about the room, with little
wriggiing steps in time to the music
nearly double herself backward and tll.ow
herself in alDsorts, Of contortions and atti-
tudes till [ am convinced that all hel
bones are made, of gristleeri One thing
which perhaps you will not understand IS
that her dancing means something.
whereas ours is only intended for exercise
or to give people a chance of talking. She
has told you by pantomime whole histo.
ries-of how she was at home with hel
| mother, and how she went to market and
to the bazaar; how she did the washing and
cooking; how her father (the sheik
wanted her to marry, and how she didn't
want to marry, for that Ali was fighting
far away in the desert She wonders i
he thinks of her, and she looks at tho
| moon and knows that he can see it too
and asks when he will come back. Nov
the music and the steps change He i
coming back and they are dressing her Il
be his bride; she is walking in the brida
procession, yelling her face for shame
etc. The performers are clamoring TO
1'aki. [ think they deserve a little, bu
we must not let them have too much
Now | will ask for my favorite sword
dance. That thin and graceful girl vii
take her turn and describe to you fgh
! by pantomime. You win be surprised a
| the way she can handle cimeter, as i
! she had learned broadsword all her life
! She whirls it round her head and throat
under her arms, over her back like light
ming, and within an inch Of our faces, a.
if she were slashing at sixty unseen ell
emies, dancing all the time"