n were the general style of their
dance; but, as in other countries, the taste of the performance varied
according to the rank of the person by whom they were employed, or
their own skill; and the dance at the house of a priest differed from
that among the uncouth peasantry, or the lower classes of townsmen.

It was not customary for the upper orders of Egyptians to indulge in
this amusement, either in public or private assemblies, and none
appear to have practiced it but the lower ranks of society, and those
who gained their livelihood by attending festive meetings. The Greeks,
however, though they employed women who professed music and dancing,
to entertain the guests, looked upon the dance as a recreation in
which all classes might indulge, and an accomplishment becoming a
gentleman; and it was also a Jewish custom for young ladies to dance
at private entertainments, as it still is at Damascus and other
Eastern towns.

The Romans, on the contrary, were far from considering it worthy of a
man of rank, or of a sensible person; and Cicero says: "No man who is
sober dances, unless he is out of his mind, either _when alone_, or in
any decent society; for dancing is the companion of wanton
conviviality, dissoluteness, and luxury."

Nor did the Greeks indulge in it to excess; and effeminate dances, or
extraordinary gesticulation, were deemed indecent in men of character
and wisdom. Indeed, Herodotus tells a story of Hippoclides, the
Athenian, who had been preferred before all the nobles of Greece, as a
husband for the daughter of Clisthenes, king of Argos, having been
rejected on account of his extravagant gestures in the dance.

Of all the Greeks, the Ionians were most noted for their fondness of
this art; and, from the wanton and indecent tendency of their songs
and gestures, dances of a voluptuous character (like those of the
modern Almehs of the East) were styled by the Romans "Ionic
movements." Moderate dancing was even deemed worthy of the gods
themselves. Jupiter, "the father of gods and men," is represented
dancing in the midst of the other deities; and Apollo is not only
introduced by Homer thus engaged, but received the title of "the
dancer," from his supposed excellence in the art.

Grace in posture and movement was the chief object of those employed
at the assemblies of the rich Egyptians; and the ridiculous gestures
of the buffoon were permitted there, so long as they did not
transgress the rules of decen