IV 



My Log 403 



casting himself suddenly and violently backwards 

 against the wall ; he was always caught just in time ; 

 but I was wicked enough to wish that his friend 

 would ' miss his tip ' for once, in order to see what 

 effect the sharp contact of the marble would have 

 upon him. The noise of the tambourines and the 

 yells of the singers were absolutely deafening. 

 There was not a moment's pause ; it was one 

 incessant throbbing, beating mass of sound. The 

 faces of the two dancers became perfectly horrible ; 

 as their heads spun round and round, the white eyes 

 glared from the tangled mass of hair, and the foam 

 really and actually flew in flakes from their lips, — real 

 epileptic foam tinged with blood. One of them had 

 a mass of black hair, and the other still more of iron 

 gray. The hair of both became perfectly matted 

 with perspiration, and it was clear that human nature 

 could not hold out much longer. Suddenly the 

 gray-haired man yelled louder than ever and fell 

 back, as if shot through the heart, into the arms of 

 the attendants, who immediately bundled him up and 

 carried him away into the outside darkness. The 

 black-haired one freed his arms from their covering 

 and made a dash at the lighted charcoal, biting and 

 crunching it between his teeth as if it had been dry 

 toast. Had he stopped there I should have been 

 the more satisfied ; but when he laid a red-hot bit on 

 his white tongue till it frizzled, and holding a piece 

 between his teeth blew out till it blazed again, 

 lighting up his jaws like a lanthorn and sending a 



