The Hawaiian gazette. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu, Hawaii]) 1865-1918, 1885-02-11
The Fantastic Csardas.


One of the men was seated before an
empty barrel-in lieu, l supposed, of a
table-and on it he had placed fiat wood
en- instrument, something like shallow
box, almost a yard in width, but rather
less IN length. l supposed it to be a
stringed instrument, until, coming nearer,
discovered that what / had taken for
strings were long fiat strips of glass, ar
ranged in different lengths In each hand
he held little sticks, made something like
the hammers in the interior of piano, and
with these he struck the glass KEYS. Yet
to say he struck the keys gives an imper-
feet impression, for the hammers only
trembled and quivered and danced in his
fingers like the drops of fountain falling
into the basin below. One note was never
long drawn out, but vibrated in reverend
ing repetition, particularly when the air
was played slow and melancholy. This
instrument is the cymbalom; and in every
Hungarian melody there are notes which
are only producible in perfection on just
this instrument, although first-rate perfor-
mers can execute feeble imitation of its
trembling tones upon the piano. 1t must
have been nearly 8 o'clock, late hour
for so rural spot, when the gipsies, after
a silence of some minutes, began playing
a slow melancholy air, which instantly
ecognized-from the peculiar rhythm
to be Hungarian. Pair by pair the dancers
approached the band, until dense ring
was formed close to the music For
Csardas only two people are necessary,
although, as in waltz, it may be danced
by hundreds. The gentleman holds the
lady's waist by placing a hand on either
side, while her hands rests on his shoul-
ders, so that they front each other, and I
am told that the rules of the dance com
pei them to look each other in the face
They began moving to and fro in slow
time to wild and melancholy air, the
peculiarly of the movement being that
the dancers every now and then Interrupt
ted their minuet by sudden milkmaid's
curtesy, for can give no other name to
the curious little bob they performed after
every two steps.
The instruments of the gipsies all seemed
to be bewailing their late in chorus; the
cymbalom trumbled with emotion; the face
of the leader of the band was so long that
| thought he was meditating an unusual
ly appalling suicide. But before l knew
it, the music had changed and the fun
grew fast and furious. The previous step,
or something very like it, was continued,
only sixteen times as fast, so that the dan
GERS did nothing but bob up and down
like corks on stormy sea- They still held
each other and never moved from the place
where they had taken their stand, for
Csardas must be danced on as small
space of ground as possible. Now [ un-
i ~ H.
rian to dance Csardas; for [ caught sight
of Erzsi, and by slight movement was
able to watch her evolutions, and [ came
to the conclusion that an Englishwoman
of her rank would as soon think of dane
ing the Csardas, as it ought to be danced,
as of dancing ballet. Her partner held
her little waist on either side, and every
now and then twisted or rolled her to and
fro between his hands, and then changed
or threw her from one arm to the other,
her hands being meanwhile upon his
shoulders, and she looked straight into
his eyes with a pair of the loYeliest orbs
that ever bewildered mans senses. They
had already been dancing at least for half
an hour and the bobbing up and down
had lapsed into kind of continual tire
mulous movement, but the excitement
seemed to increase. Erzsis partner held
her with one hand and waved his hand
above his head with shout, caught her
in both hands, and whirled her wildly
round and round, let her go and putting
his two hands to his head with a gesture,
as thought of a man going mad,) execu-
ted a wonderful double shuttle with his
feet, and then began to whirl round and
round like dervish, she doing the same,
till with one accord they stopped and
seemed to fling themselves into each
others arms again. Imagine the fearful
noise of eight or nine instruments in one
comparatively small room, and added to
that, the stamping and shuffling of feet,
the occasional shout of the dancers and
lively conversation going on among the
spectators and then imagine the heat
The thinnest members of the community
looked as though they had spent month
in vapor bath, but the more robust ap-
peared as though watering cart had just
gone over them, so damp and limp were
they; even their very mustachios hung
down at the corners and gave them ludi-
crously forlorn appearance [ thought,
when they got to this pitch, they must
leave off or die But no! They only
shouted "LassauI" (slowly,) and then the
slow movement began again, and men and
maidens wiped their heated broWs. iIt1tiI-