Dana, Richard Henry, 1815-1882; Sailors; Seafaring life; Voyages and travels
A great deal was said about our friend Don Juan Bandini, and when he
did appear, which was toward the close of the evening, he certainly
gave us the most graceful dancing that I had ever seen. He was dressed
in white pantaloons neatly made, a short jacket of dark silk, gaily
figured, white stockings and thin morocco slippers upon his very small
feet. His slight and graceful figure was well calculated for dancing,
and he moved about with the grace and daintiness of a young fawn. An
occasional touch of the toe to the ground, seemed all that was
necessary to give him a long interval of motion in the air. At the
same time he was not fantastic or flourishing, but appeared to be
rather repressing a strong tendency to motion. He was loudly
applauded, and danced frequently toward the close of the evening.
After the supper, the waltzing began, which was confined to a very few
of the "gente de razón," and was considered a high accomplishment, and
a mark of aristocracy. Here, too, Don Juan figured greatly, waltzing
with the sister of the bride, (Donna Angustia, a handsome woman and a
general favorite,) in a variety of beautiful, but, to me, offensive
figures, which lasted as much as half an hour, no one else taking the
floor. They were repeatedly and loudly applauded, the old men and women
jumping out of their seats in admiration, and the young people waving
their hats and handkerchiefs. Indeed among people of the character of
these Mexicans, the waltz seemed to me to have found its right place.
The great amusement of the evening,--which I suppose was owing to its
being carnival--was the breaking of eggs filled with cologne, or other
essences, upon the heads of the company. One end of the egg is broken
and the inside taken out, then it is partly filled with cologne, and
the whole sealed up. The women bring a great number of these secretly
about them, and the amusement is to break one upon the head of a
gentleman when his back is turned. He is bound in gallantry to find
out the lady and return the compliment, though it must not be done if
the person sees you. A tall, stately Don, with immense grey whiskers,
and a look of great importance, was standing before me, when I felt a
light hand on my shoulder, and turning round, saw Donna Angustia, (whom
we all knew, as she had been up to Monterey, and down again, in the
Alert,) with her finger upon her lip, motioning me gently aside. I
stepped back a little, when she went up behind the Don, and with one
hand knocked off his huge sombrero, and at the same instant, with the
other, broke the egg upon his head, and springing behind me, was out of
sight in a moment. The Don turned slowly round, the cologne, running
down his face, and over his clothes, and a loud laugh breaking out from
every quarter. He looked round in vain, for some time, until the
direction of so many laughing eyes showed him the fair offender. She
was his niece, and a great favorite with him, so old Don Domingo had to
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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