Fig. 33. Arabian sword dance
Fig. 34. Hamitic wedding dance
Set forms of amusement seem to be few. As already mentioned, the performance of the Mûled is both a religious exercise and an entertainment, and a peculiar “dance” is indulged in with much relish on all occasions, though the performance seems pointless and monotonous in the extreme. The photograph was taken at a wedding, the bundle of dried palm leaves on the extreme left set up on the ridge pole of the tent being here, where no palm trees grow, the symbol of wedded prosperity. The women guests form a rough semicircle and provide music by chanting and clapping the hands together. The men stand in a group opposite at a little distance, and at intervals one or two of them run forward towards the women, jump into the air as high and as often as they can, and then return to their fellows. The photograph shews two men at the top of their jump together.
The sword dance illustrated was a really fine display, made by the captain and crew of a merchant sambûk which was in harbour. Hearing a considerable noise in the village one night, I strolled out to see what it might be, and found complete silence and darkness! Enquiring at the house of one of my sailors, I found the whole party in his tiny hut; I told them there was not the least objection to their dance provided it went on no longer than midnight, and that I should much enjoy seeing it. I was rewarded by a really interesting display, instead of the tame performance I expected; sticks being used in place of swords. So I arranged for another performance, which is depicted on [Plate XVII], by daylight, and gave leave for real swords to be brought from the sambûk. The principal dancers each had a sword and its scabbard in their hands, the crew, negro and Arab, forming the lines between which the dancers marched, turned and whirled to the sound of song, clapping and drum. It was desperately hot work by daylight, but the enjoyment of all is visible even in the photograph.
Sham fights are sometimes performed, with apparent fury, by natives armed with sword and shield; but this is a much lower thing than the symbolic expression of emotion given by the Arabians’ dance. The ordinary negro dancing is absolutely stupid in appearance, and I could not find that the performers attached any meaning to it. Two of these men, however, can give a good sham fight with sticks, but it is that and nothing more, the emotions dramatised being of the crudest. Throwing their heavy curved walking sticks at another which is stuck vertically into the sand, is one of the minor amusements for boys and men. Sides are chosen, the losers’ penalty is to carry the winners on their backs over the range, or this may be compounded for by the losers standing cups of tea. This is really practising a useful art, as hares &c. are killed in this way. There is also a game in which two men move white and black pebbles over a draughtboard in which holes are cut to contain the pebbles, or the board may be merely a series of little holes in the sand. There is a good deal of gambling over cards, the ordinary European cards, and those of good quality too, being very cheap. I was at pains to discover the game, but found it so elementary and uninteresting that I straightway forgot it again. Perhaps this is why it is played for money; without serious gambling interest the game would not be worth playing, even to a native.
CHAPTER V
SAILORS OF THE RED SEA
The sailors of the Red Sea are practically all Arabians and their negro slaves. They generally give Jedda or a neighbouring port as their headquarters, though some are from Sinai in the north to Hodêda in the south. The Sudan coast is merely a portion of their beat, few vessels really belong to the country. The pearlers, too, come and go as they visit the reefs of the whole sea in turn.
The maritime Hamites are so very few and so rarely depend entirely on the sea for a living, but upon their animals also, that it is surprising to find that they are distinguished in any way from the country population. The difference may be expressed in the actual words of one of them. “You see that man riding a camel? He would think me a fool because I know little about camels, while I think him a fool because he might die of hunger by the sea-side, not knowing how to get even clams (Tridacna) to eat.”