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are two or three fetes going on in different parts of 

 the town at the same time. Each trade and business 

 has its special fte : the tramway men, clerks, 

 printers, and so forth. Then every village and hamlet 

 has its festin, at which all the country side is welcome. 

 There are even fetes which seem to have no pretext 

 whatever. A very small inducement is enough to set 

 these festive people dancing. Haweis says that they 

 dance badly : I hesitate to contradict the great Broad 

 Church divine, but they certainly ought to be proficient, 

 for they have six months' uninterrupted practice every 

 year. 



To me it seems that the dancing of these 

 Ligurians is marked by much modesty and by a 

 complete absence of vulgarity. 



Canon Hole (" Nice and her Neighbours ") is even 

 more uncomplimentary : he denies that a Frenchman 

 can kick ! If he only saw the Chasseur Regiment at 

 drill, he would change his opinion. 



Our " skirt dancers," and certain ladies of society, 

 boast that they can kick a hat off a peg six feet from 

 the ground : This is doubtless an elegant accom- 

 plishment for a lady, and a proof of great activity ; 

 but the Chasseur is the champion kicker. To see 

 these men at their military exercises, one would 

 suppose them to be a troupe of acrobats. They " lift 

 a lively leg," as Burns would say. raise one foot to 

 the height of a man's head, and spin round and round 

 like a ballet dancer, kicking the whole time. No 

 Englishman could do it. A kicking match between 

 two of the drill instructors is an extraordinary sight. 

 They spring up and down like grasshoppers : first 

 a box on the ears, then a kick in the face, then a 



