MEXICAN DANCES AND MUSIC — GENIN. 665 



build up the hearth and to dance around it the ball of the " Cachina," 

 for which they would make expressly masks many of which repre- 

 sented the faces of their ancient gods. It is still Chavero who makes 

 this statement. 7 After all, it was a general custom in all ancient 

 Mexico to dance around a sacred fire, around the central hearth of a 

 newly constructed house, or of a habitation which they had just re- 

 built, and for this ball the natives wore masks, or simply painted 

 their faces to imitate tatooing, and adorned themselves with flowers, 

 leaves, and plumage, with which they then paid homage to the 

 household gods. 



In Yucatan, one special dance was in favor, and later it spread, 

 with some modifications, into different parts of Mexico, then remain- 

 ing under another form. In the center of a room they raised a pole 

 from 15 to 20 feet high which bore at the top transverse bars, fas- 

 tened on a common center which formed a pivot. From the ends 

 of the crossbars hung cords of different colors much longer than 

 the distance between the bar and the ground. The dancers, from 12 

 to 20 in number, each took the end of a cord, and at a signal com- 

 menced to move in cadence, advancing, retreating, turning, and cross- 

 ing their respective cords in such a way as to form a kind of web, pre- 

 senting symmetrical designs determined beforehand. 



When, on account of this interweaving, the cords were so shortened 

 that the dancers could scarcely hold them, even by stretching their 

 arms and by standing on their toes, a new signal was given by the 

 music, and the dancers, always in time and according to a prescribed 

 rhythm, unwove the design which they had plaited, finding them- 

 selves at the end in the places which they had occupied in the begin- 

 ning. 



This kind of dance admitted of a variation: The cords were not 

 so long, the dancers of both sexes were disguised as birds, and they 

 were supposed to run, to pursue each other, to dance, to leap, even 

 to imitate the flight of birds by moving the wings which they wore 

 fastened to their shoulders; all without losing the cadence. This 

 play, minus the costumes, however, is still preserved in Mexico, 

 where it is called volador. It is, as will have been noticed, an ex- 

 ercise quite like that known in Europe under the name of Pas de 

 Geants. 



One of the most curious of the balls which may be mentioned was 

 that of the animals and flowers : Men and women dressed like birds 

 (Rostand has found nothing new in this connection) danced and 

 whistled while turning in time, leaping up onto the trees, throwing 

 themselves into the water when they simulated aquatic birds, throw- 



7 Mexico a travel de los Siglos, Vol. I, p. 116. 



