420 APPENDIX, N° I. 
Gkrizim or Samaria, and Alexandria built by the! 
great priest Onias, we learn that a great portion of space 
was reserved for the Chorus, which was a species of theatre, 
and in which they executed, on all great festivals, singing 
and dancing, v^ith the utmost pomp. The maids of Silo 
were dancing, according to custom, when the young men 
of the tribe of Benjamin, to whom they had been denied 
in marriage, came, by the advice of the old men of JiraeZ, 
to carry them off by force. King David, according to 
Calmet, joined the Levites in dancing before the ark, from 
the house of Obed-edom to Bethlehem. Lorin, in his 
Commentaries on the Psalms, thinks that, dancing was 
added to their performances; for in Psalm cxlix. 3. he 
says, ' Existimo in utroque psalmo nomine chori intelligi 
posse cum certo instrumento homines ad sonum ipsius tri- 
pudiantes :" and, very little after, he adds, ' niultitudine 
saltantium et concinentium.' 
" The Grecians also received their dancing, like many 
other primitive nations, from Egypt. Orpheus, having 
been initiated in the mystery of his, imported into his 
country both the knowledge and the errors of his hosts. 
This sacred dance, which became soon celebrated in all 
their several mysteries, in a very short time produced 
many others, and not long after was introduced on their 
stage. The armed or military dance deserves to be 
reckoned among the former j it seems one of the most 
antient, for it was ascribed to Minerva : Lycurgus, with 
some little alteration, introduced it into Lacedcemon : and 
this dance, both in its primitive state and with the alterations 
adopted by the Spartan legislator, gave to Mnna the first 
idea of the Salic or Saltan dance. 
" That dancing was introduced upon the Grecian stage. 
