Page:The Folk-Lore Journal Volume 5 1887.djvu/302

294 pinned or hooked back on both sides; the older girls have one side only caught back, and the married women allow both sides to hang down naturally. All—both women, girls, and children—wear a thick belt round the hips, composed of many folds of dark woollen material; some of them have very quaint and handsome old silver jewellery. Some women, who probably belonged to a different village to those above described, wore a zouave jacket of crimson velvet or dark-coloured cloth, richly embroidered in silver or gold, and a petticoat of some costly material; others, again, had a skirt made of checked woollen stuff, kilt plaited from the waist downwards, and embroidered at the bottom to the depth of six inches. Their jacket was of a dark-coloured cloth braided with some bright colour; it was made with a basquine, and was plain in front, but disposed at the back in large plaits, so arranged as to form volutes, like the pipes of an organ.

The head-dress of all the women was tolerably similar in character: it consisted of a small cap, in form like an ordinary pudding-basin; it fits closely to the head, and is kept in position by a strap which passes under the chin. This cap is covered with coins which are pierced and sewn on to it; those on the top are about the size of a quarter franc piece, then comes a row of half francs and of whole francs; and lastly, if the wearer can afford it, a row of gold coins hangs down over the forehead. Some tie a yellow silk- handkerchief over this cap, but the better dressed women wind a scarf of some very transparent material round their head; its ends are covered with gold embroidery, and float behind them. The costumes alone make the scene at Mægara a novel and interesting one to a stranger; its interest is greatly enhanced by the spectacle of the open-air dances performed by these peasants, which are believed to have come down to them by tradition from the most remote times. At least a dozen different sets of people may be seen dancing in various ways at the same time, to the accompaniment of their own native music and instruments. The men dance together, advancing in a long line with slow undulating movements, each with his left arm round his neighbour's waist, precisely in the same manner as the temple attendants of each god dance during Rugonath's festival in Kulu; sometimes four or eight men perform