To describe it is quite impossible, but, though there was a good deal of tossing of legs and double-shuffling, it seemed to our untutored minds to be more of a play than a dance, and, as usual with this dreadful people, whose minds seem to have taken their color from the caves in which they live, and whose jokes and amusements are drawn from the inexhaustible stores of preserved mortality with which they share their homes, the subject appeared to be a most ghastly one.I know that it represented an attempted murder first of all, and then the burial alive of the victim and his struggling from the grave; each act of the abominable drama, which was carried on in perfect silence, being rounded off and finished with a furious and most revolting dance round the supposed victim, who writhed upon the ground in the red light of the bonfire.
Presently, however, this pleasing piece was interrupted.Suddenly there was a slight commotion, and a large, powerful woman, whom I had noticed as one of the most vigorous of the dancers, came, made mad and drunken with unholy excitement, bounding and staggering towards us, shrieking out as she came:
"I want a black goat, I must have a black goat, bring me a black goat!" and down she fell upon the rocky floor foaming and writhing and shrieking for a black goat, about as hideous a spectacle as can well be conceived.
Instantly most of the dancers came up and got round her, though some still continued their capers in the background.
"She has got a Devil," called out one of them."Run and get a black goat.There, Devil, keep quiet! keep quiet! You shall have the goat presently.They have gone to fetch it, Devil.""I want a black goat, I must have a black goat!"shrieked the foaming, rolling creature again.