CH. XIV 



A GBAND BALL 345 



the round dances under what would be called in England 

 distressing circumstances. To dance well upon the turf is 

 by no means an easy thing to do, but to dance upon the 

 turf in sUppers which cover only the toes would seem an 

 impossibihty, and yet I can give my word for it that some 

 of the Malay women valse as elegantly and lightly as any 

 girl in an English ballroom. 



A stiU more surprising fact is that the ballroom is 

 not the place for pleasant conversations and flirtations. 

 The love-sick swain must find other opportunities than 

 the dance affords to whisper his sentiments into the ear of 

 his charmer. During the intervals the women sit in a 

 row upon benches ranged along the walls of the tent, and 

 the men stand about in crowds at either end smoking. 

 The intervals are pretty long, and when the next dance is 

 announced, the rhen, placing their unfinished cigars in a 

 place of security so that they may find them again at the 

 next pause, make a bow to the girls they wish to have as 

 partners, and take up their positions for the dance. The 

 orders are then shouted out in French by the M.C., the band 

 strikes up, and the dance begins. Everything is performed 

 with the greatest precision and decorum, and scarcely a 

 word passes between the partners from the beginning to 

 the end. 



The ball lasts from six o'clock in the evening until six 

 o'clock the next morning, and then, as the rising sun begins 

 to make the lamps look pale, the party is adjourned to the 

 beach, where three large canoes are in readiness to take the 

 guests for a cruise in the bay in the cool breezes of the 

 early morning. But even now the decorum does not break 

 down ; the band goes in one canoe, the gentlemen in the 

 next, and the ladies in the last, and then, wafted by the 

 gentle zephyrs of the early morn, illuminated by the 

 splendours of the tropical sunrise, and lulled by the music 



