s, the nobles, and the wealthy, with their wives and daughters.
Several hundreds stood up, every gentleman with a lady; and they advanced
and retired several times, holding each other by the hand, to the sound of
the music: at last the circle they had formed broke up, some running off
to the right, and some to the left--then a gentleman, leaving his lady,
would strike out obliquely across the room, sometimes making direct for
another lady at a distance, and sometimes stooping and flourishing with
his legs as he went along: when he approached her, he made a sort of
salaam, and then retreated. Another would go softly up to a lady, and then
suddenly seizing her by the waist, would turn and twist her round and
round some fifty times till both were evidently giddy with the motion:
this was sometimes performed by a few chosen dancers, and sometimes by
several hundreds at once--all embracing each other in what, to our notions,
would seem rather an odd sort of way, and whirling round and round; and
though their feet appeared constantly coming in contact with each other, a
collision never took place. And those who met in this affectionate manner
were, as I was told, for the most part perfect strangers to each other,
which to me was incomprehensible! Several ladies asked me to dance with
them, but I excused myself by saying that their dancing was so
superlatively beautiful that it was sufficient to admire it, and that I
was afraid to try--'besides,' said I, 'it is contrary to our customs in
Hindustan.' To which they replied that India was far off, and no one could
see me. 'But,' said I 'there are people who put every thing in the
newspapers, and if my friends heard of it I should lose caste.' The ladies
smiled; and after this I was not asked to dance." The Persian princes,
when in a similar dilemma, evaded the request by "taking oath that we did
not know how, and that our mother did not care to teach us; and thank
God," concludes Najef-Kooli with heartfelt gratitude, "we never did dance.
God protect the faithful from it!" Independent of the above recorded
opinions on the singularity of quadrilles and waltzes, the khan takes this
occasion to enter into a disquisition on the inconsistency (doubly
incongruous to an Oriental eye) of the ladies having their necks, arms,
and shoulders uncovered, while the men are clothed up to the chin, "and
not even their hands are allowed to be seen bare," and returned from the
ball, no doubt, more lost