DANCING DERVISHES IN CYPRUS.

Otago Witness, Issue 1858, 1 July 1887, Page 31

DANCING DERVISHES IN CYPRUS.

During the week of the Nicosia races some time ago, nearly all the English in the island found themselves collected in the little mosque' belonging to the dancing dervishes, who had promised to hold one of their services for our benefit. Our special party, was under the guidance of a certain F. Effendi, a rather advanced young Turk of the frock coat species. He speaks English pretty well, so he was a good guide, though it was rather difficult to obtain any detailed information from him. "' ; > The Dancing Dervishes' Mosque; ' ' here is very small and poor; there is no railed and grated gallery for women," but several of- these soulless bodies, as the Turks politely think them, were standing outside, peering into the interior of ;the mosque through the barred windows. As we passed the women drew their yashmaks over their mouths in the most discreet manner, though one of them favoured a young officer of our party with a very coquettish glance from her beautiful almond-shaped dark eyes. Inside the mosque there is no attempt at decoration, the mud walls are plastered over with whitewash, now dingy to a degree. A large circular space was, roped in for the dancing performance. At one end of ,the mosque is a rickety wooden gallery, in which were four' or five solemn-looking men in the curious conical, brimless felt hats which mark the dancing dervishes. ', They, .chanted very dolefully verses from the Koran," and accompanied them with doleful music. .One had. a flute,

another a tambourlik, -. and ' the sounds .pro- : duced 'were wild and droning,- andijutterly.u unlike any music known' tOoWestern ears/ Close to the roped-in. circle.^ were i placed a number of chairs for us all. , Except onej or two- Turks, who came and went during- the ceremony, we English were the sole audience,. Opposite the choir, gallery was placed* a< prayer carpet; on it, inside the rppe, sat, cross-legged, the old sheik , of- .the dancers], a, very pale, handsome, and dignified old man, . I He wore a long grey-blue, robe and the uspal ' brimless conical hat.- < Along the. wall.of the, mosque were ranged the dancers in long' lose dust-coloured cloaks, in ■ which ,tHey, were wrapped from head to foot. -No, caste distinctions seem jto be recognised. ;, Onejof . the performers was a negro; he had; been cook to an English lady who was near me, and she told me that he used occasionally! to take the skirts of her dresses , and try their, effect in dancing, not ati the mosque, jof, coursej but in private life — a most discon-^ certing kind of offence to have to rebuke your cook for. Another dancer had a very curions face, pale and haggard, with* large dark eyes in hollow sockets. As he danced, his face became that of a .wild fanatic, and -one could easily fancy his delighting in , Moslem crusade. A very handsome boy, of ab^ut 14 ytars, was, we were told, the son of the pld .sheik; the others had nothing very striking about them. As soon as we were all assembled, one of the dervishes left his place in the row'against the wall, and took off his own, and'his comrade's long cloaks, laying .them on a pile on one side. This showed the dervishes wore a kind.of loose, very full cream serge.dress, reaching from the throat to the ankles, and confined at the waist by handsome coloured silk sashes. They began [by walking in single file very slowly round the roped circle, their arms crossed in front with the hands on each shoulder. Every time tliey passed the sheik, who remained seated ion his prayer carpet, they bowed profoundly, and crossed the big toes of their bare feet over each other. At the third round they touched, with forehead and lips, the sheik's hands, which he kept folded in front' of him.

After this they began to whirl round and round with a queer sort of prancing step. As they whirled their long oft skirts flew out, until they resembled the " cheeses" that used to delight a nursery in the days of , crinolines. They lifted up their hands and arms as tney danced, higher and higher, the elbows 1 a little bent inwards. It must be a most exhausting performance, and it was ,a very great puzzle to "us all to> know how s»ch a' young slender boy as the sheik's son could keep up as he did. The dancer 1 * face looked very- strained ; but beyond this there was no sign of fatigue. There seemed to be no connection between the music and the dancers ; no kind of time was kept; and the perpetual whirl of the long skirts, crowned by <}he light brown hats, set one's own brain whirling too, in a manner that suggested Longfellow's " Rope Walk." It may s,ou'nd absurd' to read of> but there was, nothing, ridiculous in it to us lookers-on. The dancers had a peculiarly reverent and absorbed manner that quite prevented any. absurdity strik-l ing us, A very weird kind of groaning' shout pf " Allah I" from the' choir finished the performance, and the dancers returned to their posts against the wall, and covered themselves in their cloaks once more. ' I tried to get our Effendi to fully explain the meaning of the dance, but could extract, nothing from him. He either thought ray woman's intellect was too weak to grasp it, or he objected to unveil the mysteries to a giaouress — which I suppose, would be the feminine of Giaour, His politeness,' however, led him to offer

An Introduction to the Sheik

in that worthies' own room — an offer we were only too glad to acoept. So we were led across the damp stone pavement of the mosque, where the drippings of the aqueduct which supplies Nicosia with water were marked by the growth of fragile maidenhair fern' and green lichen. From the court we ascended a flight of outer stairs leading to a dark and barren little room, with a parlous hard divan running round its walls. Its. only other decoration was a very quaint picture of a dervish playing on a species of Pandean pipe — a stiff angular figure curious to see in a [ Moslem room, as the representation of a person's face is usually considered as against the Koran. lam afraid to say how old we were, told this picture was. In a few minutes the sheik came in, and we were each presented to him and received with the most'perfect Oriental courtesy. Whatever your Turk's inside thoughts may be, he is one of the, most polished ■ gentlemen conceivable as far as exterior goes. The inevitable coffee and cigarette appeared, and, with our Effendi ,as interpreter, we exchanged all kinds of pretty speeches. Our host expressed his hope that we had enjoyed the ceremony, and said how happy he was always to meet English people. My husband fell such a victim to the old man's grande maniere that we told him we quite expected to see hini on some future day revolving in a tall hat as a•• 'vert " to the dancing dervishes. Curious to say, Sunday was the day on, .which the deryisheg choose to dance, noc on the Friday, which .is the usual Mahommedan Sabbath. Some of our ' party were very anxious to see

The Howling Dervishes; ■ but their numbers have so much diminished that I believe their .Thursday nights are no longer devoted to their terrible performances, A legend is extant in Nicosia that some years ago, when some English people f were present at the howlers' " service," one of the dervishes' fanatical excitement reached' such a pitch, that he jumped over the barrier which separated hini and his brethern 'from the audience and bit an unhappy Briton in 1 the leg. This was told me very gravely as a fact, with the addition that " the man recovered from the bite ;" whether the dervish it was that died history does not relate ; but, true or not, the tale does not encourage one to interview the howlers.

, The next time I - saw the . sheik of the dancers was at a ball given on the Queen's birthday by our present High Commissioner, Sir Henry Bulwer, at which all ttie Oypriofc notabilities Were present, them, our old: friend's black robes and tall hat, were

seen,i as ! he gazed solemnly ; in - from the' ldng French.winddw of. the verandah^ into which the ballrpbm'opens. His dark eyes and pale face shoyred little, interest or excitement as the intricacies of the<laticers or the music of a,waltzwere gone through}! but, happening to look at hini' while a polka was going on, I saw, him bending eagerly forward,* ani seeming to evince ad much interest as the "> true believer . ever thinks it consistent with his dignity to exhibit., I daresay he imagined , we, too, had t • some religious ceremony, . in which, dancing formed a< part, to.- do honour .to 'our Queen. . ,{ ■< ■: < - ;' !