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A Savage Ballet

A Savage Ballet image
Parent Issue
Day
20
Month
April
Year
1887
Copyright
Public Domain
OCR Text

The feast of Mohammod's birtlulay has reeently taken place herí', and, indeed, it timk place rather nnexpectedly. The prophet's birth was on the ninth day of the month of Molud, and it is the custOBJ to begin thecelebraüon on tlio first day oí the month and keep it up for ten days. Now, the Mohammedan month is the lunar month, and it is the dnty of the Bashaw, or Governor, to proelaim the beginning of Molud wheu he, or -ome solid citizen in whom he lias eonfidenee, has seen the youngmoon. This ear. aeting on uncortain Information, the Bashaw started the festivitie-; a day - or rather a night - alicad of time. During all thisperiod, to the celebration of the 9th, the country peoplfl are flocking into Tangier, coming generally by villages, or if from greuter distances by "kabjrlea" or tribes, and they are to ba seen coming along the beaeh in erowds composed of men mounted on horses or mulos, or riding side-saddle on small donkeys, or on foot and all carrying gnus, generally long flint-loeks of Mooriih niake, and with these many women, Some with babiea slung over their shoulders. Where all the people slept I do not know; there were nianv tents on the niarketplaoe, and you could see men sleeping in the Street! at night, but the majority must have gone back a distanee into w. country at nightfall. In the daytime this erowd was very inteiesting to wateh. The different tribes have distinguishing inarks. For instance, the ¦¦Kirt'" men shave all the head excopt the space above and behind the rigbt ear, where they wear a tuft or cue. Others leave a tuft on top, and so on, l'hese countryiuen are the deseendanta of the barbarians, the Phocniciuns, (reeks and Romans found here, and are not of the race of their eonquerors, the Arabs. That there has not been much admixturo of blood is apparent in their features and color, which, though sun-darkened, is uniform in the race, :iinl lias not shades from white to black, wliich marriage with negro slaves havu generated among the Araba. Some of the foreign ministers and residente have tents put up at the head of the slope and invite their friends to ritBSM the performance. The view from one of these tents, where I was, was very striking. In the foreground a dense moving erowd; dark moiintaineers, with their longguns and theil araensla of pistola and daggera; women shrouded in coarse sacking, exposinfl only an ej-e and a bit of a nose ta riew; grave, bearded Moor in white liaiks, as the eall the va.-l white folds tliev put over their other rat ment and turban; Jews in their long gaberdines; in the iniildle. distanee the t.own of Tangier, ta white cube of house-; n-in like apile of child's blocks, to the K:sbah or eitadel. and in the distance tlu blue entrance to tin; Mediterranean, bounded by the Spsnish hills, and thirtj miles oft', the rook of (iibraltar, showing clearly against the rastert) sky. Th mouutaineers indulge in lunch puwdet play, constant discharges, soinetimeao near that as the guns are diseharged on the ground the gravel is blown into one's face. One savage ballet 1 noticeil; about twenty of these rullians, divided into two platoons, face each other, and at the sound of pipe and drum dance forward and back, passing through each other's lines, brandishing their gum high in the air, until at a point in the dance when one platoon gives a wild shriek, reversing the muzzles of the guns to the ground, and giving a simultaneous leap in the air, they tire olí their guns all together. Then this platoon runs off to an attendant who stands by with an open bag of powder to reload, and its place is taken in tlio dance by a fresh troop. I saw thil thing kept np for.an hour, to the intense delight of performers and amlience. The feet and legs of some of tlio participante were bloed ing from woumU made by careless discharge! of gans, but this was (juite disregarded. (ienrally some eyes are put out and soino lives lost by explosions iu these

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Subjects
Ann Arbor Courier
Old News