DANCE
658
DANCE
imititioii of the gestoxM used hy him. When the late deputation of the Church of Scotland were on their way through Palestine, their young Arab guides, to relieve the tedium of the journey, sometimes ** com- menced a native song and dance ; one of them, advan- cing a little before the rest, began the song, dancing forward as he repeated the words ; when the rest, fol- lowing him in regular order, joined in the chorus, keep- ing time by a simultaneous clapping of hands. They sang several Arabian songs, responding to one anoth- er, dancing and clapping their hands." In their** dan- cing dervishes" the Turks seem to have adopted into their 83rstem the enthusiastic raptures, at once martial and sacred, which (e. g. in the Roman ScUii) seem in- digenous in many Southern and Eastern races from the earliest times.
In the earlier period dancing is found combined with some song or refrain (Exod. xv, 20 ; xxxii, 18, 19 ; 1 Sam. xxi, 11) ; and with the C]h, or tambourine (A. V, " timbrel"), more especially in those impulsive outbursts of popular feeling which cannot find suffi- cient vent in voice or in gesture singly. Nor is there any more strongly popular element traceable in the religion of the ancient Jews than the opportunity so given to a prophet or prophetess to kindle enthusiasm for Jehovah on momentous crises of national joy, and thus root the theocracy in their deepest feelings, more especially in those of the women, themselves most eas- ily stirred, and most capable of exciting others. The dance was regarded even by the Romans as the wor- ship of the body, and thus had a place among sacred things (Servius ad Virg. Bucol, v, 78). A similar sen- timent is conveyed in Psa. xxxv, 10 : ** All my bones shall say, Lord, who is like unto thee?" So the " tongue" is the best member among many, the '* glo- ry" (Psa. Ivii, 8) of the whole frame of flesh, every part of which is to have a share in the praises of God. Similarly among the Greeks is ascribed by Athennus to Socrates a fimgment in praise of dancing (Athen, xiv, 627 ; comp. Arrian, Alex, iv, 11). Plato certainly (Leg, vii, 6) reckons dancing (6pxn<ftQ) »» part of gym- nastics (yvfivatJTUcrj). So tar was the feeling of the purest period of antiquity from attaching the notion of effeminacy to dancing, that the ideas of this and of warlike exercise are mutually interwoven, and their terms almost correspond as synonyms (Homer, H, xvi, 617; comp. Creuzer, Symh, ii, 867; iv, 474; and see especially Lucian, De Salt.^ passim). Women, how- ever, among the Hebrews made the dance their espe- cial means of expressing their feelings ; and when their husbands or friends returned fit>m a battle on behalf of life and home, they felt that they too ought to have some share in the event, and found that share in the dance of triumph welcoming them back. The ''eat- ing, and drinking, and dancing" of the Amalekites is recorded, as is the people's '* rising up to play" (pHS, including a revelling dance), with a tacit censure ; the one seems to mark the lower civilization of the Amal- ekites, the other the looseness of conduct into which idolatry .led the Israelites (Exod. xxxii, 6 ; 1 Cor. x, 7 ; 1 Sam. xxx, 16). So, among the Bedouins, native dances of men are mentioned (Lynch, Dead Sea, p. 295), and are probably an ancient custom. The He- brews, however, save in such moments of temptation, seem to have left dancing to the women. But, more especially, on such occasions of triumph, any woman, whose nearness of kin to the champkm of the moment gave her a public character among her own sex, seems to have felt that it was her port to lead such a demon- stration of triumph or of welcome ; so Biiriam (Exod. XV, 20), and so Jephthah*s daughter (Judg. xi, 84), and similarly there no doubt was, though none is men- tioned, a chorus and dance of women led by Deborah, as the song of the men by Barak (comp. Judg. v, 1 with Exod. XV, 1, 20). Similarly, too, Judith (xv, 12, 13) leads her own song and dance of triumph over