Among the principal duties of the Chorus was the performance of certain dances, simple enough at the outset, but, in process of time, refined and rendered so intricate by art, that it required no little learning and ability to execute all their varied movements with dignity and grace. Somewhat to assist the eye and memory, the whole pattern, as it were, of the dance seems to have been chalked out on the floor of the orchestra;[976] while the greatest possible pains were taken in drilling the Choreutæ to open, file off, and wheel through their labyrinthine evolutions, without confusion. The manner in which these persons usually entered the orchestra, that is to say, ranged in a square body, three in front and five deep, or five in front and three deep, has suggested to some the notion that they represented a military Lochos;[977] but besides that this is inconsistent with their Dionysiac origin, they did not always preserve this arrangement, but, on some occasions, came rushing in confusedly, while on others they traversed the Parodos in Indian file. ----- Footnote 976: This, however, I merely conjecture from the practice of marking with lines the station of the chorus. Hesych. v. γραμμαί. Footnote 977: When making their exit, it is said they were preceded by a flute-player. Sch. Aristoph. Vesp. 582. These musicians wore, while playing, straps of leather called φορβείαι, bound over their mouth in order to regulate the quantity of air transmitted into the pipe. Id. ibid. See Burney, Hist. of Music, i. 279. ----- The musicians,[978] in the Greek theatre, took their station upon and about the steps of the Thymele, which answers as nearly as possible to the position of the orchestra in our own theatres. Here, also, stood the Rhabduchi,[979] or vergers of the theatre, whose business it was to see that order was preserved among the spectators. ----- Footnote 978: Cf. Torrent. in Suet. Domit. Com. p. 390. a. The best auletæ were those of Thebes. Dion Chrysost. i. 263. Footnote 979: Suidas, v. ῥαβδοῦχοι, t. ii. p. 672. f. Scalig. Poet. i. 21. ----- With respect to the dances[980] performed by the Chorus, they were so numerous, long, and intricate, that it would be here impossible to enumerate and describe the whole. They appear to have conceived the idea of representing almost every passion and action in human life by that combination of movements and gestures which the term pantomime, borrowed from their own language, expresses much better than our word dancing.[981] A taste, in some respects similar, still prevails among the Orientals, whose Ghawazi and Bayadères, though relying rather upon routine and impulse than on the resources of art, perform at festivals and marriages, and before the ladies of the harem, little love-pieces and pastoral scenes, which evidently belong to the class of mimetic dances described by ancient authors. ----- Footnote 980: