HUMAN PEGTOPS.

King Country Chronicle, Volume IX, Issue 740, 27 January 1915, Page 7

HUMAN PEGTOPS.

THS DANCING OF THE DARWEESHES.

The "bail" opened very slowly, the darweeshes waiting staidly round in a circlte, counter-clockwise. As each one reasaed the prayer-mat of the sheikh he took, two quick, long steps forward, turned and bowed to the one following, who returned his salutation. This continued until all had given and received a salute, which brought the sheikh back to his original position in front of his prayer-mat. It seemed to mc, says T. C. Fowle,, in the "Cornhill Magazine," as if the sheikh, instead "of bowing to the darweesh immediately behind him (as had done the others) bowed towards the- mat ; a trivial departure from the routine for which I am unable to assign a reason. In the meantime music had Tjcen playing slowly, the instruments con- 1 sisting of a drum, a fiddle, and a pair of symbals, the whole; having a much more pleasant and harmonious effect to my ear than the ordinary Eastern music. Thar music now stopped, the darweeshes stood still in their positions, and the sheikh stepped forward and uttered a short prayer or exhortation, his voice sounding strangely resonant through the silent, crowded building. Again the music began, this time to a faster beat. The darweeshes again, began their slow procession round, but as each reached the sheikh, who now stopd still at his prayermat, a change occurred. The sheikh bent forward and kissed the cap of each darweesh, which was inclined for his salute, and no sooner was this done than, as if moved by some sudden and invisible machinery, the darweesh himself spun away, whirling giddily around. At first his arms would be crossed on his breast, his hands clasping his shoulders ; but as his momentum increased, as though* shot out by centnifugal force his arms would extend themselves until they were at right-angles to! hi s body. The next darweesh would go through the same slow, dignified approach, the same salutation from the sheikh, the same sudden rotation,; and the next, and the next, until the whole company of them, to the number of about fifteen, were whirling below me like so many gigantic white tops. It was a strange s'ight, and moreover a not ungraceful sight either. In fact, I have seen far more awkward expositions of the '"poetry of motion" in a Western ballroom than I did that day in a darweesh Takeeyeh. From where I was, looking down, their whirling skirts prevented me seeing their feet, so that v they seemed to be moved by some invisible power rather than by their own volition. This illusion was helped by the fact that they accomplished their whirling with great dexterity and smoothness, there being no movement visible—that is, for ths most part—a few (novices perhaps) being not so smooth in, their turnings as the rest. There was one old man whom I watched witbj special admiration; there waj) no doubt about his facile princeps among his companions. . Thei way he slowed) down, when the music ceased, in the manner of a " dying top," ending with a; twirl of h'is skirts around him, was the last word (I should say) in the art of whirling.—'''Weekly Telegraph."