Page 66 - Malay sketches

MALAY SKETCHES
the players, and the want of regular time in the
music, I judged, and rightly, that we had entered as
the overture began. During its performance, the
dancers sat leaning forward, hiding their faces as I
have described ; but when it concluded and, without
any break, the music changed into the regular
rhythm for dancing, the four girls dropped their
fans, raised their hands in the act of Sembah or
homage, and then began the dance by swaying their
bodies and slowly waving their arms and hands in
the most graceful movements, making much and
effective use all the while of the scarf hanging from
their belts.
themselves from a
Gradually raising sitting to a
kneeling posture, acting in perfect accord in every
then to their floated
motion, rising feet, they through
a series of figures hardly to be exceeded in grace
and difficulty, considering that the movements are
essentially slow, the arms, hands and body being
the real performers whilst the feet are scarcely
noticed and for half the time not visible.
They danced five or six dances, each lasting
half an with
quite hour, materially different figures
and time in the music. All these dances I was told
were symbolical ; one, of agriculture, with the till-
ing of the soil, the sowing of the seed, the reaping