NATIVE DANCING. 
27 
it is only after hours of patient restraint that 
the feasting commences on a signal being given. 
Several hundreds occupied the tables arranged 
for the general company; at a little distance, 
almost curtained in by draperies of flowers and 
foliage, by a white-covered table sat natives of 
rank and importance in gay costumes and glitter- 
ing jewels, relieved by the black coats of a few 
European gentlemen. We did not mean to par- 
take, so were led to a canopied and carpeted dais, 
where, however, we had set before us some of 
the daintiest of the confections. Beyond the 
invited guests were hundreds more of onlookers, 
who feast in their own way, purchasing from the 
many vendors mingling in the crowd. All, how- 
ever, enjoy alike the theatre and the dance. The 
former is a ludicrous exhibition of a series of 
grotesque hobgoblin creatures, winch, are re- 
presented on a large sheet by a magic lantern. 
The advent of each fresh figure is greeted by 
the beholders with screams of delight, which sink 
into murmurs of criticism till the next moves 
on the scene. 
The dance is the performance of a youth and 
a maiden, in /which, however, the latter takes 
the more prominent part. Her hair was very 
neatly arranged, and decked with white flowers. 
