MALAY SKETCHES
the players, and the want of regular time in the
music, | judged, and rightly, that we had entered as
the overture began. During its performance, the
dancers sat leaning forward, hiding their faces as 1
have described ; but when it concluded and, without
any break, the music changed into the regular
rhythm for dancing, the four girls dropped their
fans, raised their hands in the act of Sèmbek or
homage, and then began the dance by swaying their
bodies and slowly waving their arms and hands in
the most graceful movements, making much and
effective use all the while of the scarf hanging from
their belts.
Gradually raising themselves from a sitting to a kneeling posture, acting in perfect accord in every motion, then rising to their feet, they floated through a series of figures hardly to be exceeded in grace and difficulty, considering that the movements are essentially slow, the arms, hands and body being the real performers whilst the feet are scarcely noticed and for half the time not visible,
They danced five or six dances, each lasting quite half an hour, with materially different figures and time in the music. All these dances I was told were symbolical; one, of agriculture, with the tilling of the soil, the sowing of the seed, the reaping
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