The hero of the night was Chico Mpamba; he must have caused a
jealous pang to shoot through many a masculine bosom. With
bending waist, arms gracefully extended forwards, and fingers
snapping louder than castanets; with the upper half of the body
fixed as to a stake, and with the lower convulsive as a scotched
snake, he advanced and retired by a complicated shuffle, keeping
time with the tom-tom and jingling his brass anklets, which
weighed at least three pounds, and which, by the by, lamed him
for several days. But he was heroic as the singer who broke his
collar-bone by the ut di petto. A peculiar accompaniment was a
dulcet whistle with lips protruded; hence probably the fable of
Pliny's Astomoi, and the Africans of Eudoxus, whose joined lips
compelled them to eat a single grain at a time, and to drink
through a cane before sherry-cobblers were known. Others joined
him, dancing either vis-a-vis or by his side; and more than one
girl, who could no longer endure being a wall-flower, glided into
the ring and was received with a roar of applause. In the
feminine performance the eyes are timidly bent upon the ground;
the steps are shorter and daintier, and the ritrosa appears at
once to shun and to entice her cavalier, who, thus repulsed and
attracted, redoubles the exciting measure till the delight of the
spectators knows no bounds.
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