, in which the
men and women form a ring. Each man holding his partner round
the waist, makes her whirl round with almost inconceivable
rapidity: they dance in a grand circle, seeming to pursue one
another: in the course of which they execute several leaps, and
some particularly pleasing steps, when they turn, but so very
difficult as to appear such even to professed dancers
themselves. When this dance is performed by a numerous company,
it furnishes one of the most pleasing sights that can be
imagined.

The POLISH nobility have a dance, to which the magnificence of
their dress, and the elegance of the steps, the gracefulness of
the attitudes, the fitness of the music, all contribute to
produce a great effect. Were it performed here on the theatre,
it would hardly fail of a general applause.

The COSSACS, have, amidst all their uncouth barbarism, a sort of
dancing, which they execute to the sound of an instrument,
somewhat resembling a Mandoline, but considerably larger, and
which is highly diverting, from the extreme vivacity of the
steps, and the oddity of the contortions and grimaces, with
which they exhibit it. For a grotesque dance there can hardly be
imagined any thing more entertaining.

The RUSSIANS, afford nothing remarkable in their dances, which
they now chiefly take from other countries. The dance of dwarfs
with which the Czar Peter the Great, solemnized the nuptials of
his niece to the Duke of Courland, was, probably rather a
particular whim of his own, than a national usage.

In ASIA.

In TURKY, dances have been, as of old in Greece, and elsewhere
instituted in form of a religious ceremony. The _Dervishes_ who
are a kind of devotionists execute a dance, called the _Semaat_
in a circle, to a strange wild-simphony, when holding one
another by the hand, they turn round with such rapidity, that,
with pure giddiness, they often fall down in heaps upon one
another.

They have also in Turky, as well as India and Persia, professed
dancers, especially of the female sex, under the name of
dancing-girls, who are bred up, from their childhood, to the
profession; and are always sent for to any great entertainment,
public or private, as at feasts, weddings, ceremonies of
circumcision, and, in short, on all occasions of festivity and
joy. They execute their dances to a simphony of various
instruments, extremely resembling the antient ones, the
_tympanum_, the _crotala_, the _cimbals_, and the like,