As a matter of fact, however, and to the honour of the weaker sex, it
is only the men who indulge in these potations, the women rarely if
ever touching the strong liquor of those hills. The Seam of Non-Crem
has a large palisaded enclosure set apart for his annual feast. It is
quite circular, and the back of the Seam's house bounds it at one part.
The proceedings are generally opened by the soothsayers beginning
their auguries for the day by the breaking of eggs, and examination
of their contents. A Khassia can do no action of his life without a
certain number of eggs being broken over it. The special raison d'être
of the dance is the display of all the unmarried girls from far and
near over the mountains to choose or to be chosen by suitable partîs.
As the Khassia hills are essentially territories where women's rights
prevail, it is rather a delicate question as to which of the matrimonially
inclined individuals do the actual proposing part of the business. All
female royalties choose their own husbands ; and what is more, can
calmly fix their affections on another woman's husband of their tribe,
and compel him to forsake his own choice, and come and be married
over again, nolens volens. It is therefore likely (as all family property
descends in the female line, and as the man always goes to live with
his wife's family after the marriage) that the ladies, even in the lower
ranks of life, enjoy a perpetual leap-year. These annual dances are
the occasions on which the Khassia maiden makes her début ; and
every ornament that family liberality or individual taste can supply or
suggest is gathered together to assist in setting off the charms of the
débutante to the greatest advantage.
The dress of the girls consists of wonderfully beautiful silk robes, hanging straight down from the neck and knotted on each shoulder : its artistic defect is the absence of all attempt at draping, the silk falling tightly without any spare folds. An embroidered border, and a heavy fringe, finishes off the garment at the ankles. The rich girls wear a crown, either of fine gold or silver, of most beautiful design, whilst their poorer sisters content themselves with a flower of the hybiscus, or a piece of sweet-scented daphne, stuck into the knot of hair at the back of their necks.
At the beginning of the proceedings, the musicians take up their position in the centre of the circular enclosure, and there they squat
