274 
ASIATIC DANCERS. 
these seemed the enfuriated votaries of the Indian idol Jugur- 
naut; leaping, whirling, tumbling head over heels ; in short, 
every violent action and contortion of person, formed the ma¬ 
noeuvres of this much admired and hideous entertainment. The 
more temperate, and, according to Asiatic description, the most 
elegantly delightful part of the ballet, is performed by twisting 
the body into all kinds of odious postures, accompanied by a 
manderine-like dodder of the head, which is duly answered by 
a wriggle from the back, or hips. 
While all this was going on, I observed that the solemn Turk 
gradually descended from his gravity ; and, as the gesticulations 
increased in rapidity, violence, and fury, (augmented, in frightful 
harmony, by the uproarious bowlings and shrieks of the music,) 
his features gradually relaxed, and his tongue gave utterance, till his 
ejaculations of delight, and bursts of enraptured laughter, became 
little less tumultuous than the noise from the performers. A 
substantial meal, however, settled all discomposed nerves into 
their usual saturnine buckle; and the whole assembly, highly 
gratified with the varied entertainment, took their leaves before 
sunrise to prepare for matin prayers, and the public visits of the 
morning. 
The amusement just described, is the only one of a theatrical 
complexion known amongst the people. It is often called for 
by the female part of the inhabitants of Bagdad ; but, I am told, 
that with the men it is now very rare ; the pasha so setting his 
face against it, as to forbid the avowed existence of liireable 
dancing-boys in his capital. 
So much for the modern ways of ancient Babylonia ! But my 
purpose being with the remains of the past, I lost no time in 
making arrangements for visiting the eminence, called that of 
