CHAPTER XXI.

"In order that you may thoroughly enter into the spirit of our little _fête_, my dear fellow, I must, in your behalf, remove some of the obscurity in which the bayaderes are shrouded.

"In Europe the most ridiculous ideas prevail about these priestesses of the dance, obtained chiefly from the tales of conscientious, but easily imposed-upon travellers. As a matter of fact, they have scarcely set foot in India before they make known to the inhabitants their wishes to see the famous dancing girls who have for so long excited their curiosity. A so-called cicerone, whose sole occupation really consists in providing a supply of the spurious article, hastens to introduce to the notice of the unsophisticated European a few women passably pretty, and tolerably well-made, who give themselves out to be bayaderes with the same facility as with us a man announces himself as a landed proprietor or a contributor to the newspapers.

"To the sound of a kind of tambourine and brazen cymbals, these ladies step forward, raise their arms in the air, indulge without any preface in a variety of those contortions of trunk and shoulders which are the fundamental principle of all Oriental dances, and cast on their patron glances which, they do their best to make appear ardent. He, on the contrary, quite insensible to all these manoeuvres, gets rid of his visitors as quickly as possible, and on his return to Europe, exclaims, 'Don't believe in the bayadere—she is a regular sell.'

"The real fact is that he never had a glimpse of the genuine article, and it is quite a mistake to suppose that it is to be found in _cafés_ or hotels, or to imagine that a bayadere is to be had for the asking. Just as poets are born, and not made, so you must absolutely be born a bayadere or resign all pretensions to the title.

"The origin of this race dates from the most remote antiquity. Amongst the countless Hindoo divinities to be found in our curiosity shops, you may have remarked a four-armed figure perched on an elephant. He is one of the eight gods of Brahminism; he is called Indra and, according to the legend, the bayaderes, or celestial dancing girls, inhabited his kingdom. One of these was enamoured of a mortal, and gave birth to a daughter, who, on account of her semi-terrestrial origin, could not be brought up in heaven, and was in consequence confided to the care of the priests called Brahmins. They placed her in a pagoda, where, by way of proving the truth of the saying that every well-bred dog has a good nose, she displayed from her earliest years the greatest aptitude and liking for dancing. She, in her turn, had seven daughters who, gifted in like manner as their mother and their grandmother, became dancers of renown.

"In the present day they are connected with the worship of the gods, and might be called the vestals of their religion, if its rules, whilst forbidding them to marry, did not place them entirely at the mercy and in the hands of the Brahmins. In a word, they are a species of religious harem of which the priests of Brahma are the Sultans. The bayadere, therefore, still lives, but exclusively in the temple or pagoda where, on the days of religious ceremonial, she executes the prescribed dances before the idols. Occasionally, too, she is to be found in the palace of some Rajah who has purchased her on her attaining maturity for a fabulous price from the Brahmins, for she is their property, and a very handsome revenue they manage to secure out of her and her fellows.

"This race of women would have long ago become extinct, if several castes in India, the weavers amongst others, did not look upon it as a pious duty to devote their daughters to the service of the temples. To be accepted they must not be more than five years old, must be possessed of sufficiently good looks to give promise of future beauty, and their family must renounce all idea of ever seeing them again. If they fulfil the required conditions they are handed over to the care of some aged matron, herself a graduated priestess, to whom is entrusted the task of instructing them in their new duties, and of initiating them into all the mysteries of a dance, which, whilst it partakes of the nature of all Oriental dances, yet actually resembles no one of them, and is, moreover, invested with decidedly mystic characteristics.

"Such is the information, a little hazy, perhaps, but quite correct as far as it goes, which I am enabled to give you on the subject of the genuine bayadere. If you want a more detailed account, refer to that very instructive work, Jacolliot's "Voyage au pays des Bayadères."

"The first idea of Delange, de Morin and myself, was to hold our _fête_ in the open air, and invite our dancers to come on the poop. The night was lovely—so luminous was the sky, and so bright was the star shine, that it gave one the idea of a prolonged twilight. Not a breath of air was there to raise a ripple on the water. Our engine alone disturbed the calm that reigned around, and its throbs were the only sound that broke the perfect stillness that had fallen on all. Never was there a night more propitious for a spectacle in the open sea. But the Captain, who, in order to make us forget his shortcomings, had placed himself entirely at our disposition and was doing his very best to help us, pointed out that the _fête_ we were preparing would certainly lose much of its originality, and would be much less natural if it took place on the poop; because the Hindoos would object to being exposed to the gaze of all the common sailors, and would in consequence not give us any real idea of their dancing powers, He advised us to select as our theatre the apology for a cabin, already occupied by his female passengers, and he undertook to enlarge it by removing some of the largest packages, and rolling up the mats which now served for curtains. His opinion and advice prevailed.

"About eleven o'clock in the evening, as we were creeping along the eastern shore of the Red Sea, the Captain, who had run in as near land as possible, stopped the engines, and cast anchor right in the centre of a perfect little bay, formed by some of the banks of coral so numerous in these parts. This manoeuvre had scarcely been completed, when the trusty Joseph-Mohammed, in a black coat and a white tie, as correct "on duty" as he had promised to be, announced to us that all was ready. We descended from the poop, and, going a little way along the deck, reached the main hatchway, down which we went with the aid of a ladder.

"The little cabin had been made about seven yards long, its width remaining the same as before. We took our places at one end, just underneath an opening which had been made by removing the hatches, and we thus had the clear sky above our heads. Four lanterns of coloured glass, ornamented with arabesques, were suspended from the sides of the ship, two on either hand, but the moon, after dallying with the sea, peeped in through the open ports, and spread around us all the light she thought we needed.

"We had no sooner seated ourselves on a kind of low couch, made of cushions with mats spread over them, than an Arab brought us coffee, served in small cups wreathed with silver filagree-work, and lighted for us chibouks filled with latakia. We looked about us, tolerably surprised, I assure you. All these surroundings, absolutely new to us, excited our curiosity, for though _blasés_ as Parisians, as travellers we were without any experience.

"Very soon the draperies which answered the purpose of a drop-curtain were stirred, and a woman appeared, bowed low before us, crept cringingly to our feet, prostrated herself there, sprang up again with a bound, and took refuge in a corner of the cabin, whence we saw her take two large circular plates made of copper, which she began to beat gently, one against the other, with measured, but plaintive and seductive rhythm. In her, I thought, I recognized the one whom I had seen asleep with her knees up and her elbows resting on them. She might have been twenty years of age, but jaded and prematurely worn, as are all Eastern women, she looked older.

"Placed on the retired list as a dancer, she had been converted into a musician for the sake of keeping her employed. Her hair was interwoven with small gold coins strung on a thread; she wore a jacket and skirt of richly embroidered blue satin, and a cashmere bodice served to display her still charming figure. Her large sleepy eyes, whose lustre was but slightly dimmed, gazed vacantly into space.

"Little by little, the cymbals were beaten in quicker time; in lieu of just touching them gently, she struck them against each other, and the rhythm losing its plaintive character, became more animated and more marked. At last the two parts of the instrument, after being held suddenly apart, were brought together with a clash, the curtains were lifted all together, and three girls bounded into the midst of us.

"Their hair, the black-brown hair I described to you, was dishevelled, their shoulders bare, the lower part of their figures was draped in a tightly-fitting scarlet satin garb, and the rest of their bodies was covered with silk-gauze, fringed with gold, through which could be seen the burnished tints of their velvety skin.

"At first, without moving their feet from the Smyrna carpet which had been placed for them on the ground, they wound in and out, their arms extended before them, their heads turned backwards, their almond-shaped eyes half closed, their mouths slightly opened, their nostrils quivering, and their bosoms heaving with a slow, but even and continuous motion. They uttered not a sound, not even a sigh escaped them; their eyes alone grew gradually brighter, and their breasts heaved more quickly.

"They were, all three of them, wonderfully lovely, and though the eldest of them could not have reached fifteen, their figures were fully developed. But, as I have already described them to you, I will only add that the animation which the motion of the dance lent them, served to enhance their beauty.

"After a moment or two, they became more and more animated, their arms were waved convulsively, their hands clutched at the air, and their whole bodies took the undulating movement which up to this time had seemed to be confined to the hips.

"Each of them, without paying the slightest attention to her neighbour, enacted some scene of impassioned comedy or tragic drama. One, like an inspired virgin, raised her eyes to heaven, and appeared to be sending on high a fervent prayer. Another pourtrayed the victim of unrequited love, and the third seemed plunged in a sort of ecstacy.

"It was a ballet, but a ballet of a new order, picturesque and highly coloured, conceived by a librettist born under the equator.

"To make a long story short, this strange, unheard of dance, of which I have given you but an imperfect idea, ended only when the performers sank to the ground, panting and exhausted.

"The stars glittered still over our heads, the moon, more brilliant than ever, enfolded us in her bright, clear rays, and a gentle breeze wafted to us across the water the countless odours of the neighbouring shore."