Page:Malay Sketches.pdf/62



ALAYS are not dancers, but they pay profes- sional performers to dance for their amuse- ment, and consider that “the better part” is with those who watch, at their ease, the exertions of a small class whose members are not held in the highest respect. The spectacle usually provided is strangely wanting in attraction ; a couple of women shuffling their feet, and swaying their hands in gestures that are practically devoid of grace or even variety—that is the Malay dance—and it is accom- panied by the beating of native drums, the striking together of two short sticks held in either hand, and the occasional boom of a metal gong. The enter- tainment has an undoubted fascination for Malays but it generally forms part of a theatrical perform-