166 A MALAY NAUTCH. 



I said the Band stuck up as we entered and I have tried 

 to describe the principal figures in the scene which greeted 

 us, and which impressed me, with much interest as a sight 

 to which I was unaccustomed. 



The Orchestra was on the left of the entrance, that is 

 rather to the side and rather in the back ground, and I was 

 glad of it. The position had evidently been chosen with due 

 regard to the feelings of the audience. 



From the elaborate and vehement execution of the players, 

 and the want of regular time in the music, I judged, and 

 rightly, that we had entered as the ouverture began. During 

 it's performance, the dancers sat leaning forward and hiding 

 their faces as I have described, but when it concluded, and 

 without any break, the music changed into the regular time 

 for dancing, the four girls dropped their fans, raised their 

 hands in the act of " Sambah" or homage, and then began 

 the nautch by swaying their bodies and slowly waving their 

 arms and hands in the most graceful movements, making 

 much and effective use all the while of the scarf hanging 

 from their belts. 



Gradually raising themselves from a sitting to a kneeling 

 posture, acting in perfect accord in every motion, then rising 

 to their feet, they began a series of figures hardly to be 

 exceeded in grace and difficulty, considering that the move- 

 ments are essentially slow, the arms hands and body being 

 the real performers whilst the feet are scarcely noticed and 

 for half the time not visible. 



They danced 5 or 6 dances, each lasting quite half an hour, 

 with materially different figures and lime in the music. 

 All these dances I was told were symbolical, one, of agricul- 

 ture, with the tilling of the soil, the sewing of the seed, the 

 reaping and winnowing of the grain, might easily have been 

 guessed from the dancers movements. But those of the 

 audience whom I was near enough to question were, Malay 

 like, unable to give me much information. Attendants stood 

 or sat near the dancers and from time to time, as the girls 

 tossed one thing on the floor, handed them another.. Some- 

 times it was a fan or a glass they held, sometimes a flower 

 or small vessel, but oftener their hands were empty, as it is 

 in the movement of the fingers that the chief art of Malay 

 nautches consists. 



The last dance, symbolical of war, was perhaps the best, 

 the music being much faster almost inspiriting aud the move- 



