Dance with Beads and Hands
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
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