112 CONCLUSION OF THE EXHIBITION. The lovers being now together, the pantomime proceeds. At first, notwithstanding the earnestness with which she desired his presence, the damsel behaves coyly and bashfully; repels his advances with becoming decorum; plays the coquette; retires while he pursues, 66 Fugit ad salices, at se cupit ante videri;” but all the while betrays, by looks of complacency, and the humid sparkling of the eye, that her feet and heart are running different ways. By degrees the dance assumes a more voluptuous character. The imagination of the bayadère, wrought upon by the comedy which she performs, kindles to flame; her whole frame is agitated by passion, her eyes close, her head drops backward, her arms are pressed against her bosom; while the music and the song,-for the whole is accompanied by words,-exhibit the same characteristics, and carry forward your ideas to the same goal. Lady Montague, who witnessed the exhibition in the harem, has ably and frankly described the dance and its effects upon the imagination: but many other exhibitions - comedies, operas, farces, waltzes are open to the same objections, and yet are tolerated, though the only difference seems to be, that the latter are the irritamenta cupidinum of civilised nations, the former of barbarians. Vice, however, in whatever climate it is found, sooner or later conducts its votaries to the bitter waters of repentance. Even the pantomime of the almé has this moral; for, the SONG OF THe almé. 113 paroxysm of passion over, we observe the fallen fair one a prey to the stings of remorse; melancholy, dejected, humiliated, a fugitive from her home, recalling, amidst the hollow enjoyments of sin, the pure delights of her days of innocence, when her soul was untainted, and her person the object of an honourable love. One of their songs, which I have endeavoured to imitate, expresses with graphic energy the force and poignancy of these feelings *: My heart is in the desert vale, with Ahmed far away, maidens gay Revel, all free and innocent, nor waste one thought on her Who left, long years ago, that vale, in pleasure's paths to err. Thither I wander in my dreams, and seem once more to stand Likening to Paradise a scene I never more must see. There Ahmed with his desert bride, his loved ones crowding near, Laments no more his Leila's fate-no, drops for me no tear, Though once-be still, my bursting heart!-though once he seem'd to prize The perfume of my panting breath, the lightning of these eyes! * Osman Effendi, who interpreted for me these scraps of poetry, compared the one here given to the old Scotch song, which he well remembered, My heart's in the Highlands, my heart is not here," &c. I 114 REMARKS ON THE DANCE. Bring music, bring the syren bowl! let wine and minstrelsy Drown these home-wandering thoughts, and teach my soul to taste of glee! Then bid my Ali, full of love, hush all my cares to rest, With his arm around my yielding waist, and his head upon my breast. All the nations of the East have, from the remotest ages, delighted in this species of exhibition, which from them passed into Greece and Rome, where it furnished the poets with an agreeable theme for satire. Horace, whose Divus Augustus had doubtless helped to introduce it, laments that the young ladies had acquired a taste for the oriental style of dancing, which was evidently popular at Rome : — "Motus doceri gaudet Ionicos Matura virgo; et fingitur artubus And Juvenal, who had travelled in Egypt, thus, at a later period, makes mention of the Roman dancing girls: "Forsitan exspectes, ut Gaditana canoro Incipiat prurire choro plausuque probatæ Ad terram tremulo descendant clune puellæ," &c. † * For the details respecting these dances, I refer the reader to Scaliger's Poetics. "Thessalæ autem mulieres," he observes, " nudæ saltabant, verenda modo tectæ, quæ subligacula diawopas nominabant. Quo miror apud Euripidem Peleus qua ratione potuerit Lacænarum virginum nudationes objicere."—1. i. c. 18. 8vo ed. † Dr. Russell, in his Natural History of Aleppo, has cited these verses in his remarks on the same dance as it prevails in Syria. See also Macrob. ii. 1. Scaliger (Poet. i. 18.) enumerates three kinds of POLICE OF THE ALMÉ. 115 The Bayadères, or Nautch girls of Hindoostan, whose performances are slightly noticed by Mrs. Heber, know no other kind of dance; and from paintings preserved in the grottoes of Eilithyias, and in the tombs of Thebes, we find that the ancient Egyptians had likewise their almé, who were employed in their domestic entertainments to heighten the effect of the song and the bowl by their voluptuous movements. At present, the ladies who practise these arts are divided into three or four classes, according to their beauty, and pay a tax to the Pasha, who, like his Most Christian Majesty, farms out the vices of his subjects. They are placed under the superintendence of the Pezawink Bashi, or Captain of the Courtesans; and when a party is sent for to perform in the evening at any private house, they must first repair to their chief, give in their names, and pay a large extra Lately, this honourable personage, after a lengthened delinquency, was convicted of the most nefarious practices, among which was that of inserting in the list of courtesans, apparently through revenge, the names of several respectable ladies, the wives or daughters of his superiors. His punishment quickly followed, and was severe; but I forget in what it consisted: probably he was thrown into the Nile. sum. dances of this description practised by the ancients; viz. the xepovoμía, the μa, and the λáriopa. Among the ladies of modern Cadiz, whence the Romans imported their ablest performers, the dance is still kept up in all its primitive simplicity (see Marti and Swinburne); and, in the opinion of Scaliger, their style of dancing exceeded all others in effrontery: " omnium corruptissima Gaditana.” 116 SINGING AND MUSIC. The music which accompanies the dance cannot, it must be acknowledged, challenge much commendation; but the Orientals, generally, appear to be exceedingly deficient in musical taste and science, and, like many persons in Europe, prefer noise and the clamour of numerous instruments to the concord of harmonious sounds. But the singers are chiefly women; and the female voice, however untutored, has always, perhaps, the power to cast a spell over the judgment, more particularly when impassioned gestures, melting looks, and a certain dithyrambic enthusiasm, appear to transport the singer beyond herself, and render her, like the Mænades or Bacchantes of old, unmindful of every thing, but the ideas and desires which possess her soul, and of which every corporeal movement is an external manifestation. And this is not so much art as nature; she becomes what she would seem-the fœmina simplex-uncurbed by that restraint and moral discipline and religious principle which in Christian countries, more especially in England, subdue and purify the passions, and elevate woman into the most pure and perfect of created things. Saturday, Dec. 1. LXI. Notwithstanding that so many travellers have favoured us with their remarks on Cairo, it appeared to me, upon the spot, that a very new and interesting volume might still be written on that city alone. It is an epitome of the whole Eastern world. There, as in a hot-bed, flourish all those vices which |