The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1889-07-19
BEWITCHING DANCERS.
Beautiful Oriental Women Who Amuse Wis
ftors at the Paris Exposition.


ftors at the Paris Exposition.
Paris Letter.
In this part of the esplanade of the expo
sition there is amusing population of
Arabs, Jews, colored people, Moors-some
loating. others making iewelry, pottery or
of roses and all the trumpery of the ORR
entail bazars. The air is perfumed with in
cense and tobacco and the vague doors of
the East. Here is Tunisian concert,
where company of very ugly Jewesses
place, not worth visiting. Here is an
Algerian concert, which is one of
the most fascinating corners of this
worlds fair. Imagine bright patio. deco
rated with arcades and panels of tiles and
arabesques of pale green and blue tones
forming coy cafe, with stools and tables
with gay polychrome ceramic tops; To the
left little kitchen, where q colOred man
makes Turkish coffee over burning charcoal
the room low stage covered with
cushions, on which are seated Jewish and
Arab dancing women, colored men and
women and Arab musicians, all clad in the
most brilliant costumes after their own
hearts. The orchestra consists of tara
bOukehS, or drums made of earthen pots
with skin stretched over the orifice. a lutte
or eoud, tambourine and shrlil hautbois,
which an Arab plays with cheeks furiously
pulled out, producing notes Of rhythm
whose mOrbidness hypnotiZes
The women. grave as idols, their fingers
stained with kohl or henna, accompany the
beating of their taraboukehs and from
time to time, as if to break the hypnotic
spell, negro will shrek for a few seconds
like a steam whistle. causing his voice to
one of the women dances-not as people
dance in society. or even at the theater, but
the dance that represents the eternal
amOrous theme, on which each nation has
embroidered its own fancies, and of which
each nation, except ours, has made its
national dance. She is s girl of twelve
or thirteen, with dark, melancholy eyes,
regular features, blue-black hair looped in
braids over her cheeks. On her head she
wears sort of jeweled inter. from which
hang chains of silver meeting beneath her
chin. and joining mass We silver arabesques
studded with rough stones. and serving
as buckles for the green silyer-spangled
drapery over her shoulders; her skirts of
pale red and brown hang loosely down to the
ground, showing only her bare brown feet.
Her dancing is mere cadenced movement,
with long undulations of the body, or little
convulsive stampings of the feet, accom-
panied by a writhing and waving of the
arms, continued to the finger tips, by a
throwing back of the head, or by an extern
sion of the hands forward in the gesture of
entreaty, the whole expressing with much
modesty and quite liberal mimicry atender
drama of passion, of defense against the
invisible lover who speaks to her by the
hautbois, of refusal that means consent, of
fhat Ss anS
ing body of the girl moves necessarily and
expresses extreme emotions, which end in a
terrible charivari OF hautbois and drums
only when both dancer and musicians are
At the other end of the Esplanade des In
valides, in the Javanese kampong. may
be seen dance of similarly exotic charac-
ter. This village is Inhabited by some
wives, who make hats and other small ar
ticleS of commerce. In one corner of tho
village is a concert-room of bamboo and
thatch. and Javanese orchestra of drums,
lutes aud tympanums, formed, some of bars
of metal and others of braZen pots with
lids composed of two supposed hemis-
pheres. The orchestra occupies the whole
of the back of the stage. the men squatting
crOss-legged and discoursing strange bell
like music, while man and woman per-
form a mimic dance. with writings and
cOntOrtiOnS of the body and limbs, less
graceful than those of the Arab dance. but
still curiously fascinating IN their almost
heratic gravity.
There are also four young dancing girls
belonging to the King who are types of
Japanese beauty and the greatest coquettes
In the exhibition. Their skins are brown,
the feet and legs up to the knees are dyed
saffron yellow, their bodies are clad with
richly embroidered stuffs. their couture
is wonderful gold helmet wrought
into arabesques of flowers and animals,
and surmounted by crescent of
black feathers; their arms are loaded
with bracelets, their eyes heightened
with an upturn tail of blue paint, and in
the center of their brows are a blue circum-
fiex accent and a gold spangle. These girls
are beautiful with the regular beauty of
| Indian idols, but they chatter like magpies,
make faces at the public and scoff at the
| dowdiness and Puritanism of the Paris
| iennes One of these little ladies, inter
| viewed yesterday through the intermedi-
| ary of an amiable Dutchman, who has
lived Tor years III .he inoles' aeeiareq tnat
| ians austere and averse to luxury, and the
| general aspect of things in Paris wanting
in gliding and umbrellas.