DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.4669#0253
GHAWAZEE PERFORMANCE 223
down to a room of exactly the same proportions and
appointments as the one above. Four dancing twirls,
dressed in long robes of fine white muslin, were seated
on the floor with their attendant musicians. Two per-
formed on curiously contrived stringed instruments,
the other played with his fingers upon a small drum.
When all the guests had been duly seated, the
musicians commenced, and two of the girls arose,
one going to each end of the long room, when they
commenced their dance to the time of the music,
gradually approaching each other by moving the
lower limbs in a peculiar way without apparently
raising their feet from the ground, gliding slowly
down the room, and finally finishing the figure by
exchanging places. They marked the time by small
metal cymbals resembling the Spanish castanets,
moving their arms and the upper portion of the body
considerably more than the lower. The performers
were small in figure, with pleasing, regular features.
Their long, black hair was braided in numerous
plaits, and adorned with coins and other ornaments,
and their eyes were painted as usual with kohl.
The last performance was the most peculiar of all.
The " prima-donna " placed a champagne bottle half
filled with water, with a lighted candle in its neck,
upon her head, and performed a similar movement to
the other two dances. She then gradually sank upon
the floor, and rolled gently over from one end of the
room to the other, keeping the bottle erect upon her
head, and the candle burning the whole time. She
finally rose and stood erect without having once
touched the bottle with her hand. She had a lithe,
almost serpent-like figure, possessing an extraordinary
elasticity of limb. It was an extraordinary spectacle
down to a room of exactly the same proportions and
appointments as the one above. Four dancing twirls,
dressed in long robes of fine white muslin, were seated
on the floor with their attendant musicians. Two per-
formed on curiously contrived stringed instruments,
the other played with his fingers upon a small drum.
When all the guests had been duly seated, the
musicians commenced, and two of the girls arose,
one going to each end of the long room, when they
commenced their dance to the time of the music,
gradually approaching each other by moving the
lower limbs in a peculiar way without apparently
raising their feet from the ground, gliding slowly
down the room, and finally finishing the figure by
exchanging places. They marked the time by small
metal cymbals resembling the Spanish castanets,
moving their arms and the upper portion of the body
considerably more than the lower. The performers
were small in figure, with pleasing, regular features.
Their long, black hair was braided in numerous
plaits, and adorned with coins and other ornaments,
and their eyes were painted as usual with kohl.
The last performance was the most peculiar of all.
The " prima-donna " placed a champagne bottle half
filled with water, with a lighted candle in its neck,
upon her head, and performed a similar movement to
the other two dances. She then gradually sank upon
the floor, and rolled gently over from one end of the
room to the other, keeping the bottle erect upon her
head, and the candle burning the whole time. She
finally rose and stood erect without having once
touched the bottle with her hand. She had a lithe,
almost serpent-like figure, possessing an extraordinary
elasticity of limb. It was an extraordinary spectacle