Page:The Folk-Lore Journal Volume 5 1887.djvu/255

 Rh climate necessitates violent exertion; whilst grief also, or at least simulated sorrow, needs some such expression of its feelings.

In Algeria, and in the plains of India, dances are executed in a slow and languid manner, though religious fervour causes the members of the Aïssaona sect in Algeria, and the dervishes of Egypt, to make such rapid movements as to cause extreme exhaustion when the excitement which produced them is at an end.

In mountainous districts, such as the highlands of Scotland and of Greece, the Spiti valley in the Himalayas, and the British province of Coorg in Southern India (which latter lies at a height varying from 2,000 to 5,000 feet above the sea), dancing seems to come naturally to their inhabitants, and to be almost a necessity to them, assisting to work off their superfluous energies.

Certain of the dances of India, more especially those of the Deccan and of Coorg, would seem to belong to the most ancient types, and to be such as would suggest themselves to aboriginal peoples.

The greater portion of the high table-land in Southern India, commonly called the Deccan, now belongs to the Nizam of Hyderabad, but a part of it is British territory.

The religion of Mahomet, as we see it in India, seems to have the tendency to render its votaries stern and uncompromising; one cannot imagine a Musulman dancing or caring to witness theatricals. The Hindu religion is also in some of its aspects one of fear, especially to that section who worship their god Saiva; yet Hindus have their light-hearted moments, they enjoy hearing music and being present at dances or theatrical representations, which in Southern India are given by troups of men and young lads, who travel about the country performing in the various towns they visit; the boys take the women's parts, and wear the native female dress on these occasions. When we witnessed such a performance at Belgauni in the Deccan all were Hindus, except the manager, who was a Parsí.

The theatre, a rude temporary native building, was very imperfectly lighted by some tiny lamps filled with cocoa-nut oil, it therefore required but a slight stretch of the imagination to fancy the scene laid in a dark forest or in a mountain cavern.

One of the dances recalled our May-pole dance, now alas! almost,