Democratic Sentinel, Volume 19, Number 42, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 25 October 1895 — The Nautch Dancer. [ARTICLE]

The Nautch Dancer.

The tent was already densely packed with Hindoo spectators, a. line of statuesque torch bearers stood around a long carpet,, and at the end of the carpet lay a pile of cushions under a canopy, all of gold worked crimson velvet. This was the Rajah’s place, but as he had sent word that he could not be present, the music struck up when our party had seated themselves in a row of chairs on a raised platform at the right. Then the dancing began—dances by several bayaderes, and single dances ac-. companied with song or recitative, en ling with a performance by the court actors. After a preliminary ballet, in which two or three took part, a dainty little personage came forward—graceful, gazelle-eyed—en-veloped in a filmy cloud of black and gold gauze, which floated airily about her; she was the living incarnation of the Nautch, as interpreted by the sculptors of Chitor; from the air oi laughing assurance with which she surveyed her assembled subjects, it was evident that she was accustomed to homage and sure of conquest. She held her audience absorbed and expectant by the monotonous and plaintive cadence of her song, by long glances full of intense meaning from half closed eyes, and by swift changes of expression and mood, as well as by the spell of “woven paces and of waving arms.” One may see many a Nautch without retaining such a vivid impression; much of its force was owing, no doubt, to the fitness of the place and the charm of strange accessories, the uncertain glare of the smoking torches, ths mingling of musky odors with the overpowering scent of attar of roses, and of wilting jasmine flowers; these perfumes were intensified in the close air of the tent by the heat of the night—the prelude to the fiercer heat which comes with the morning and the rising of the hot wind.