553 A L M 
as well as the other women of the country, have a peculiar 
method of preferving and managing their breads, which 
at the fame time makes no inconfiderable part of their 
finery. They inclofe them in a pair of hollow cafes, ex- 
aftly fitted to them, made of very light wood, linked to¬ 
gether and buckled at the back. Thefe at once confine 
their breads fo that they cannot grow to any difgudfully 
exuberant fize ; though, from their fmoothnefs and plian¬ 
cy, they play fo freely with every motion of the body, 
that they do not crufli the tender texture of the fledi in 
that part, like the ditf whale-bone days in ufe among the 
Europeans. The outfide of them is fpread over with a 
thin plate of gold or diver, or fet with gems, if they can 
afford it. Another occafional ornament the dancing-girls 
put on, particularly when they refort to their gallants, 
viz. a necklace of many loofe turns, compofed of flowers 
drung together, which they call mogrees, fomewhat re- 
fembling Spanidi double jeflamy, but of a much dronger 
and more agreeable fragrant odour, and far preferable to 
any perfumes. “ They have nothing (fays Mr. Grofe) 
of that naufeous boldnefs w hich charaflerifes the Euro¬ 
pean proditutes, their dyle of fedubtion being all foftnefs 
and gentlenefs.” 
With regard to the performances of thefe women as 
dancers, we have various accounts. The author of Me¬ 
moirs of the War in Ada, acquaints us, “ that their atti¬ 
tudes as well as movements are not ungraceful. Their 
perfons are delicately formed, gaudily attired, and highly 
perfumed. By the continuation of wanton attitudes, they 
acquire, as they grow warm in the dance, a frantic lafci- 
vioufnefs themfelves, and communicate, by a natural con¬ 
tagion, the mod voluptuous defires to the beholders.” 
Mr. Ives feems to have been very cool on this fubjedt. 
“ I could not,” fays he, “obferve any thing in their per¬ 
formance worthy of notice. ' Their movements are more 
like tumbling or diewing podures than dancing. Their 
drefs is thin and light; and their hair, neck, ears, arms, 
wrids, fingers, legs, feet, and even their toes, are covered 
with rings of gold and -diver, made after a clumfy man¬ 
ner. They wear two rings in their nofes ; and, by their 
flaring looks and odd gefticulations, you would rather fuf- 
pefl them to be mad women than morris-dancers. The 
band of mode that attends them is not lefs Angular in its 
way : it is chiefly compofed of three of four men, who 
hold two pieces of bell-metal in their hands, with which 
they make an inceflant noife ; another man beats what he 
is pleafed to call a drum ; and, that they may not want vo¬ 
cal mufic to complete the band, there are always two others 
appointed to fing. Thefe lad generally lay in their mouths 
a good loading of beetle-nut before they begin; which, 
after having been well chewed, tinges the faliva with fucli 
a rednefs, that a dranger would judge them to bleed at 
the mouth by too violent an exertion of their voice. 
Thefe gentry are called tichy-taw boys, from the two 
words- ticky-taw,. which they continually repeat, and chant 
with great vehemence. The dancing-girls are fometimes 
made ufe of in their religious ceremonies, as, when the 
prieds bring forth the images of their gods into the open 
fields on a car ornamented with lafcivious figures, thefe 
girls dance before the images amidd a great croud of peo¬ 
ple ; and, having been feleffed for their fuperior beauty, 
are very profitable to their maders the prieds, who are 
faid to proditute them to all comers.” 
Mr. Grofe informs us, that “ thefe dances would hard¬ 
ly at fird relifli with Europeans, efpecially as they are ac¬ 
companied with a mufic far from delightful, confiding of 
little drums called gumgums , cymbals, and a fort of fife, 
which makes a hideous din, and are played on by men, 
whofe effeminacy, grimaces, and uncouth dtrivelled fea¬ 
tures, all together (hock the eye and torture the ear. 
However by ufe we become reconciled to the noife, and 
may obferve fome not unpleafing airs, with which the 
dancers keep time : the words often exprefs the matter, 
of a pantomime dance, fuch as a lover courting his mif- 
irefis ; a procurefs bringing a letter, and endeavouring to 
A L M 
feduce a woman from one gallant in favour of another; a 
girl, timorous and afraid of being caught in an intrigue. 
All thefe love-feenes the girls execute in charadfer dances, 
and with no defpicable expreflion, if they are proficients in 
their art; for then their gedures, air, and deps, are mark¬ 
ing and well adapted. In fome of their dances, even in 
public, modedy is not much refpedted by the lafcivious 
attitudes into which they throw themfelves, without expo- 
fing any nudity; being richly clad and bedecked with 
jewels after their manner. But in private parties to which 
they are called, as in gardens, they give themfelves a great 
loofe, and have dances in referve, in which, though ftill 
without any groflnefs in difeovering their bodies, they are 
midrefles of fuch motions and lewdnefs of looks and gef- 
tures as are perhaps more provoking. 
ALME'DIA, a frontier town of Portugal, in the pro¬ 
vince of Tra los Montes, on the confines of Leon, where 
a very fevere affion was fought between the French and 
Portuguefe in 1663 ; 17 miles N. W. of Cividad Rodrigo. 
N. lat. 40. 41. W. Ion. 7. 10. 
AL'MEHRAB, in the Mahometan cufloms, a nich in 
their mofques, pointing towards the kebla or temple of 
Mecca, to which they are obliged to bow in praying. 
ALMEI'SAR, a celebrated game among the ancient 
Arabs, performed by cading of lots with arrows, dribtly 
forbidden by the laws of Mahomet, on account of the fre¬ 
quent quarrels occafioned by it. The manner of thb 
game was thus: A young camel, being brought and killed, 
was divided into a number of parts. The adventurers, to 
the number of feven, being met, eleven arrows were pro¬ 
vided without heads or feathers; feven of which were 
marked, the fird with one notch, the fecond with two, the 
third with three, &c. the other four had no marks. Thefe 
arrows were put promifeuoufly into a bag, and drawn by 
an indifferentperfon. Thofe to whom the marked arrows 
fell, won (hares in proportion to their lot; the red, to 
whom the blanks fell, were intitled to no part of the ca¬ 
mel, but obliged to pay the whole price of it. Even the 
winners taded not of the flefh themfelves more than the 
lofers, but the whole was didributed to the poor. 
ALME'NE, in commerce, a weight of two pounds 
ufed to weigh faffron in feveral parts of the continent of 
the Eafl Indies. 
ALME'RIA, a fea-port town in the kingdom of Gra¬ 
nada in Spain, pleafantly fituated in a fine bay at the mouth 
ofthe river Almeria, on the Mediterranean : N. lat. 36. 51. 
W. Ion. 3. 20. This town is by fome thought to have 
rifen upon the ruins of the ancient Abdera, and was for¬ 
merly a place of great confequence. It was taken from 
the Moors in 1147, by the emperor Conrad III. in con¬ 
junction with the French, Genoefe, and Pifans. It was 
at that time the dronged place in Spain held by the infi¬ 
dels ; from which their privateers, which were exceeding¬ 
ly numerous, not only infeded the fea-coads inhabited by 
the Chridians, but gave equal didurbance to the maritime 
provinces of France, Italy, and the adjacent iflands. The 
city being well fortified, having a drong caflle, a numerous 
garrifon, and being excellently provided with every thing 
neceflary, made a vigorous refidance ; but was at lad taken 
by dorm, when the viCtor put to the fword all the inhabi¬ 
tants W'ho were found in arms, didributing the bed part of 
the plunder among his allies, whom he fent away thorough- 
ty fatisfied. The Genoefe, particularly, acquired here 
that emerald veflel which dill remains in their treafury, and 
is deemed invaluable. 
Upon its reduction by the Chridians, Almeria became a 
bidiopric; but is at prefent very little better than a vil¬ 
lage, indifferently inhabited, and has nothing to tedify fo 
much as the probability of its former greatnefs, except 
certain circumffances which cannot be effaced even by the 
indolence of the Spaniards themfelves. What thefe ate, 
Udal ap Rhys, a Welfhman, thus deferibes in his Tour 
through Spain and Portugal. “ Its climate (fays he) is fo 
peculiarly blefled, that words are infufiicient to expre(s its 
charms and excellencies. Its fields and meads are cover- 
