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'Through Persia on a side-saddle' [‎20] (49/360)

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The record is made up of 1 volume (313 pages). It was created in 1901. It was written in English. The original is part of the British Library: Printed Collections.

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20
THROUGH PERSIA ON A SIDE-SADDLE
sort of tambourine and a tom-tom. One scraped a bow
across a melon-shaped stringed instrument, while another
emitted doleful sounds from a species of zither struck with
two small wooden spoons.
The first dancer was a little girl about ten years old,
dressed in crimson velvet, with a short, stiff skirt and long
expanse of white-stockinged leg. Her hair hung down in
multitudinous plaits, a coin at the end of each, and she
postured and came forward with her legs bent, progressing
by pushing her feet from side to side, a peculiarly ungrace
ful movement which elicited much applause from the
spectators. Then she knelt and screamed a weird song,
clacking metal castanets as an accompaniment to her voice.
A second small damsel, clad in purple velvet, now
appeared, and went through the same shuffling performance,
which she accentuated by raising her eyebrows alternately,
and smiling so impertinently at the assembled ladies, that
I fancy it would have relieved the feelings of some of the
Europeans present to have boxed her ears ! Two scarlet-
clad sisters succeeded these performers, and their great
feat was to bend their bodies right back until their heads
touched the ground, and then to raise themselves very
slowly, crimson in the face from their exertions.
After awhile the head wife clapped her hands, and the
entertainment was adjourned to the garden, where we sat
in a circle, and the eunuchs, stout, ungainly fellows, pushed
their mistresses about unceremoniously, bursting into their
conversation on every occasion, and seemingly on the best
of terms with them.
The little sons and grandsons of the Shah stood round
about, and a dwarf was pointed out to me, said to be sixty
or seventy years old, but in appearance a boy of ten.

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Content

Through Persia on a side-saddle.

With an introduction by Major-General Sir Frederic John Goldsmid, CB, KCSI.

Author: Ella C Sykes

Publication details: London, John Macqueen, 1901.

Physical description: xvi, 313 p; 8º.

Extent and format
1 volume (313 pages)
Arrangement

This volume contains a table of contents giving chapter headings ans page references. There is also a list of illustrations giving titles and page references.

Physical characteristics

Dimensions: 225mm x 150mm

Written in
English in Latin script
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'Through Persia on a side-saddle' [‎20] (49/360), British Library: Printed Collections, ORW.1986.a.1864, in Qatar Digital Library <https://www.qdl.qa/archive/81055/vdc_100023828976.0x000032> [accessed 28 March 2024]

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