Morning journal and courier., 1893-04-15
Dancing at u Japanese Banquet.

II.afcadio Hearn in the Atlantic Monthly
 Then all at once with a little burst of laughter a number of young girls enter, make the customary prostration of greet ing, glide into the open space between the rankc of the guests, and begin to serve the wine with a grace and dexterity of which no common maid is capable. They are pretty; they are clad in very costly robes of silk; they are girdled like queens; and the beautifully dressed hair of each is decked with fresh flowers, with wonderful oombs and pins, and with curious orns- ments of gold. They greet the stranger as If they had always known him; they jest, laugh and utter funny little cries. These are the geishs, or dancing girls, hired for the banquet
 Samisen tinkle. The dancers withdraw to a clear spacs at the farther end of the banqueting hall, always vast enough to sd- init of many more guests than ever assem- ble upon common occasions. Some form the orchestra, under the direction of a woman of uncertain age; there are several samisen, and a tiny drum played by child. Others, sipgly or In pairs, perform the dance. It may be swift and merry, consisting wholly of graceful posturing,- two girls dancing together with such coin cidence of step and gesture as only years of training could render possible But more frequently 1t is rather like acting than like what We occidentals call dancing, acting accompanied with extraordinary waving of sleeves ard fans, and with a play of eyes and features, sweet, subtle, subdued, wholly oriental. There are more | voluptuous dances known to geishs, but upon ordinary occasions and before refined audiences they portray beautiful old Jspa' nese traditions, like the legend of the fish CT Ursshims, beloved by the sea gods | daughter; and at intervals they sing an. olent Chinese poems, expressing natural | emotion with delicious vividness by few | exquisite words. And always they pour the wine, that warm, pale yellow, sleepy wine which fills the veins with soft con | tentment, making faint sense of ecstasy, | through which, as through some poppieo | sleep, the commonplace becomes won drous and blisstul, and the geisha msid, of paradise, and the world much sweetel than, in the natural order of things, il could ever possibly be-
 | The banquet, at first So silent, slowly changes to a merry tumult. The company break ranks, form groups; and from group to group the girls pass, laughing, prat | ceAAA ooAO AAso eaS SeP,
 which are being exchanged and emptiet
 with low bows. Men begin to sing olt
 eamurai songs, old Chinese poems. On'
 or two even dance. A geisha tucks he
 robe we'll up to her kneea; and the sami
 sen strike up the quick melody, "Kompi
 rs fune-fune." As the music plays sh
 begins to run lightly and swiftly in 6 fig
 ure 8, and young man carrying 8 ssk
 bottle and a cup also runs in the same fig
 ure s. If the two meet on a line, the on
 through whose error the meeting happen
 must drink a cup of sske. The masio be
 comes quicker and quicker, and the run
 ners run faster and faster, for they mus
 keep time to the melody; and the geishI
 wins. In another part of the room guest
 and geisha are playing ken. They sing al
 they play, facing each other, and olsI
 their hands and fling out their fingers a
 intervals with little cries; and the samiseI
 keep time.