Page 60 - Malay sketches

VII
THE JOGET

Every footstep fell as lightly
As a sunbeam on the river
Student
LONGFELLOW'S Spanish
are not dancers, but they pay profes-
MALAYS performers to dance for their amuse-
sional
" "
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
The is
highest respect. spectacle usually provided
strangely wanting in attraction ; a couple of women
their and their hands in
shuffling feet, swaying
gestures that are practically devoid of grace or even
that is the dance and it is accom-
variety Malay
panied by the beating of native drums, the striking
of two short sticks held in either and
together hand,
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-
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