The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1899-04-27
WITH THE ISAWIYAH.

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, that bathed everything in haze o
mellow turquoise green. The white
washed mud walls of the village, whicl
straggied up bare hillside, shone will
phosphorescent light, and at the top O
!. all the domes and cupolas of grea
mosque glowed pale green against tn
darker green of the sky Now and thel
there fitted along the walls deep in
dlgo shadow, cast by some passing fig
ure with pale. shrouded head and whit
burnous-itself almost invisible agains
the whitewashed walls Only at rart
intervals the dazzling brightness of thu
turquoise town was broken by thu
formless blot of a doorway or window
or the uncanny growth of huge prick
ly pears.
The mosque of the Isawiyah was moi
the big one which crowned the height
put little squatdomed building on the
outskirts of the village. Already round
the door was gathered a crowd Of sol
emn Arabs; we went through the
doorway down into a little white moon
lit courtyard, and from that, with q
whispered hint from our host to sup
press our sense of humor, down more
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the buildings was at right angles to tbs
doorway, opposite which was a small
apse where seats were put for us. In
this way we We're cut off from any
possibility of exit by the whole con-
gregation, an arrangement which made
US hope that the spirit might not work
too nightly that night. From the low,
whitewashed domes hung colored lamps
of tawdry metal and glass. From end
to end of the building sat cross-legged
on the ground a double row Of singers
and musicians, and behind these stood
the line of dancers on whom the chief
burden of the ceremony fell. Seated as
we were behind the musicians, we look
ed over their heads at the faces of the
dancers. Between the second row of
the musicians and the long line of dane
ers was left an open space in which at
some distance apart stood two men
whom l will call stewards; these neith-
er danced nor sang. their duty was to
remain impassive, the sole depostaries
as it were, of the standards of ordinary
| life. 1t was an Office for which we felt
grateful in the paroxysmal orgy that
| followed
The light of the hanging lamps and of
row Of candles placed between the
singers on the floor threw a warm, yell
low glow on the dusky vaulted roof,
which faded into gloom at either end.
But the dancers were in a blaze of
light, and the line of white, swathed fig
ures, their red turbans and even their
dark features cut a sharp ever-chang-
Ing silhouette on the darkness of the
aisle behind and the night sky seen
through the open door. Dusky ochre,
white and red were the dominant tones
of the whole, but among the elder men,
who sang or merely looked on, were
some rich gandaras of turquoise and
pale green, others of violet, puce and
scarlet
When everything was ready the
music began. All Arab music is strange
to European ears, but the Isawiyah has
system of religious inharmony of it's
own, in which the peculiar nasal dis
cords of Arab music are exaggerated to
an exasperating pitch while the rhythm
Is as complex and as frenzied as the
dance which it accompanies. The sing
ers and musicians were mostly elderly
men in whom the youthful ecstasies of
self-immolation had given place to sob
erer and maturer joys. The tambourine
was the only instrument and as they
played all sang words from the writings
of Sidi ben lisa. call it singing, but
the tense and painful expressions of
these elders, the corners of their mouths
drawn down, the eyes screwed up to
mere Sits, and heads strained upward,
resembled that of a row Of fierce ami
oil to-
ert rather than a church choir. The
only exception was the holy man sitting
just opposite to u.s. in whose face, beati-
fled with the religious exercise, was re-
Elected the light Of a heavenly vision,
unmarried for him by the fact that his
private life, like that of some European
saints, was not entirely free from re-
proach. Meanwhile the tambourlnes |
ratified necessarily with a dull, wooden
sound; the ictus of the rhythm was |
marked by the holy mans lifting his |
talnbourine above his head with sud- |
den jerk and giving it violent thump |
from below, while he gazed up at it as
though its dirty parchmen, covered an
imminent paradise.
AS the music grew faster and more
ogilastic the dancers became more and
more violent. Standing shoulder to
shoulder in a close-packed line, each
grasped his neighbours hand held rigid
iy down against the thigh. The basis
Of the dance, which continued with
scarcely any intermission for the whole
two hours Of the service, was rapid
jigging up and down of the line of
dancers, the bodies being kept straight
and stiff, and only the heads wagging
imply from side to side with the move
nent. In the center of the line stood
the leader, the elected president Of the
sect, handsome, finely built youth of
about twenty who had been engaged
all day in making our hosts new cro-
luet ground. He it was who marked
he changes in the dance by leaving
he line, spinning round on his heels,
md clapping his hands above his head.
At a sign from him the whole line
would bend their bodies forward till
heir heads nearly touched the ground
With scarce a moments pause in the
BILE jig.
AS the music rose to a crescendo, and {
he rhythm became more frantic and S
nolved, the dancers got visibly more I
xcted and less conscious of their sur {
oundings, their eyes taking on fixed I
nd vacant expression. Then the leader |
f the dance applied what seemed to be /
he most effective and eliminating in c
Oyjrant. at each jct1ls in tho dapca all | r