I then gave my attention to the dancer, a sweetly hipped black girl in yellow beads. She was skillful and, I suspected,
from the use of the hands and beads, had been trained in Ianda, a merchant
island north of Anango. Certain figures are formed with the hands and beads
which have symbolic meaning, much of which was lost upon me, as I was not
familiar with the conventions involved. Some, however, I had seen before,
and had been explained to me. One was that of the free woman, another of
the whip, another of the yielding, collared slave. Another was that of
the thieving slave girl, and another that of the girl summoned, terrified,
before the master. Each of these, with the music and followed by its dance
expression, was very well done. Women are beautiful and they make fantastic
dancers. One of the figures done was that of a girl, a slave, who encounters
one who is afflicted with plague. She, a slave, knows that if she should
contract the disease she would, in all probability, be summarily slain.
She dances her terror at this. This was followed by the figure of obedience,
and that by the figure of joy.
Explorers of Gor, page 133 |