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    1212 THE LEADER. [Saturday,

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    ST. JOHN'S ISIS. Isis: an JEqyptian Fila...

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    We Have On More Than One Occasion Argued...

    Courier in ability as it is in charity , we allude to the Nonconformist , whose words we cordially endorse : " An Atheist is not to be tabooed . He is not to be thrust out of the pale of humanity . Our puritan forefathers would have branded and imprisoned him i we would reason and plead with him . To us he is , and to them he ought to have been , a man and a brother . If he really believes there is no God { prove it he cannot ) , the ' portentous heroism * of such a creed awakes within us . thrilling emotions of wonder and surprise . And if with this no-belief he connects a life irreproachable and unselfish , if with this no-belief he associate * high patriotic yearnings of

    and generous political sentiments , and if with this no-belief never a word scorn or cankering hate for those who are entrapped by ' superstition' escapes his lips , then we dare not despise , much less loathe , such a man : we can give him the right hand of true friendship , and not fearing that he will make us worse , we will try to make him better . By all means let the Atheist have free speech , let him address the public ear by the press and by the platform with most tmchartered liberty ; we would no more denounce him than we would attempt to silence him . He has as much right to speak his conviction as we ours . And not only so , it is his duty to do this . Suppression of thought leads to suppression of truth . Concealment of conviction , becomes an extinguisher of truth . "

    1212 The Leader. [Saturday,

    1212 THE LEADER . [ Saturday ,

    St. John's Isis. Isis: An Jeqyptian Fila...

    ST . JOHN'S ISIS . Isis : an JEqyptian Filarimaqe . By James Augustus St . John . In 2 vols . Jii J J Longman and Co . Me . J . A . St . John , the father of a literary family , and the author of various esteemed works , here returns to the land of his early love , and talks of it with the enthusiasm of a lover . It is a strange book . One cannot describe it as a book of travels , though it sets forth the long results of travel . It is what the French call un livre de fantasie ; it mingles reverie with description , musings with anecdotes , remark with stories ; having Egypt as a canvas whereon the varied embroidery is worked , and erivin £ in a pleasant rambling way the results of reading and observation .

    Bosoms and sunrises—moonlight scenes and the ever-shifting phenomena of the sea—stars and the desert—Egyptian life and travelling incidentsphilosophy somewhat of the " rose pink " order , and semi-poetical digressions such as we meet-with in romances , and are there called " beautiful imaginings" —these form its staple , and the volumes are of that kind well suited to a sultry afternoon , when the body is indolent and the fancy active . Reclining under a tree or amid the ferns , or basking in the sun on a ledge of rock looking out upon the sea , this Isis would be very fascinating reading . We found it agreeable even during the dull and ceaseless rains of this cheerless December . Let us borrow from it an illustrative extract or tvro for the enjoyment of our readers : —

    CLEOPATEA AND SHAKESPEARE . " Cleopatra ! Whence arises the fascination attached to this name ? Other women , celebrated in history , were more beautiful , and , perhaps , also , more lavish of their beauty—Lais , Phryne , the elder and the younger Aspasia . Yet there is a strange spell about the memory of this wife of Ptolemy , which belongs to few other female names in history . It is not that Shakespeare has given her a place in one of his dramas—for the ancients regarded her as we do , and the Italians , before Shakespeare wrote , were possessed by the same sentiments . Besides , to speak the truth ,

    Shakespeare has vulgarized her , not by exaggerating her wantonness , which might have transcended his power , hut by attributing to her ideas and language incompatible with her refined Sybaritism . His Cleopatra is a fierce , coarse , wayward , unimaginative and imperious courtesan , bestowing herself where she does not love , divided between licentiousness and ambition , and dying , when she could no longer devote herself to pleasure in her own way . In this he is not borne out by history . Pleasure in her hud , no doubt , hardened the heart and corrupted the sentiments , but in the midst of her voluptuousness she retained that elegance and refinement of manners which constituted . so great a part of her witchery .

    " The musical tones with which she spoke Greek—itself the most musical of languages—sent , we are told , a vibration to the heart , even of the most indifferent persons . According to her own theory , she was mistress of herself , that she might be the mistress of others . Shakespeare makes her brawl and rave like a northern virago . Cleopatra may have had the poison of the south under her tongue , may have had no fibre in her body which did not vibrates to the touch of vice ; but while her opinions wen ; profligate and her soul corrupt , she preserved that syren sof tness , without which , beauty still greater than hers would not have been able to seduce the reason of mankind , and convert history itself into panegyric of whatever is most pernicious and disastrous to the world . " Last week our readers had a Hcientino theory of Tears ml before them , let them compare with it this

    MOKAI . lZfNO ON TEAKS . " Hero in tins north we dislike to yield outwardly to sorrow , oven when we feel it most . Uuf the Oriental find ; i luxury in Hheddbig tears , and indulge in it , both men und women , to a dogree ^ vhieh must always astonish persons of colder temperament . They have on this subject a theory , which may not be altogether without truth ; iiitmcly , that while this great and the noble weep without reserve , those of . selfish , narrow , and little souls are incapable of displaying ibis token of grief . "And no doubt tears in themselves are most beautiful , especially when the fragrance of repentance or loin is united with their brightness . Tlu > y seem to wash away tbo stains of the soul , and to restore it to that , unsullied purity which it knew

    before tbo fall . All that is loved , loveable , or sweet , in humanity , lias been cradled und as it were bathed in tears . We are ushered into the world with tears , wrung by the birth pangs from the <; yen of our mothers ; with tears do they watch over uh in infancy , when pain and sickness visit our frail bodies ; ami ufterwnrdH , whatever feeling is deepest in life , whether joy ov sorrow , ( ears are hums to hallow if ,, to isliow liow close in our nature the fountains of delight lie to those of anguish . Finally , when we ntuud on tbo last verge of time , and me ahriut , ( , i > put oil ' upon tbo fatIioiuJosn und boundless ocean of eternity , tho tears of those who love uh pour round our departing nouls , and o /' ten drop upon tins cold eluy alter the , spirit Iiuh desrrl ed i ( , for ever .

    " Let no one , therefore , be ashamed ol tears , winch are the . surest inberiiancc of humanity , and are shed most , freely by those , perhaps , who have tins largest heurtH , the widest , sympathies , and the strongest love for their fellow-creaturey . " (' onneel . ed with I , ears and other expressions of sensibility thorn in a curious chapter in LeHHing ' H immortal tren ( , ine on the Ijhocoom , to which , we refer tho student . The spontaneous tendency of men ia undoubtedly to

    exhibit all emotions ; the second stage is that of repressing the exhibition , and all half-civilized beings , whether Savages or Fashionables , are ashamed of emotion ; the third stage is a return to the spontaneity of nature . It is , worthy of remark that Homer makes his Trojans stoical and silent , his Greeks emotional and outcrying . Homer had no notion of disguising the expression of emotion . He makes even the wounded God quit the battlefield howling . We must imd room for Mr . St . John ' s remarks on

    THE DANCING G ?| tLS : " Many are the accounts which have been given of the Hawalim and Ghawazi , the singing and dancing girls of Egypt , who have been painted in the most opposite ' colours ; placed by some on a level with the polished liet & irce of Athens , and degraded by others below that wretched sisterhood who haunt the streets of European capitals . In whatever light we view them , it is impossible to comprehend the nature of Egyptian society without ascertaining their real position . At once degraded and courted , condemned to a life resembling that of outcasts , yet admitted occasionally into the most respectable company , flouted and despised even by the very libertines who frequent their dwellings , yet introduced into the harims of the great , and employed to instruct their female children in singing and dancing ; we may be truly said to possess in Europe no class resembling them .

    " There seems to be good reason for suspecting that , with the unavoidable modifications produced by time and circumstances , they are identical with the class of women represented dancing with instruments of music in their hands in the sepulchral chambers of Eilithyias . These , perhaps , were priestesses of Athor or Isis , who , devoted to the worship of the reproductive principle , took vows the reverse of those pronounced by modern nuns , to be in many , if not in most , cases broken . The Ghawazi never made , nor dd they still make , professions of chastity , but lead a wild , irregular life , in which , apparently , they discover some compensation for the scorn and obloquy to which they are exposed ; not that they are despised by all . I saw a Muslim , poor but apparently respectable , take his little daughter , then about eight years old , to be educated by the Ghawazi at Shaharah as a member of their society ; and this , I was told , is not uncommon , though , upon the whole , the sisterhood would appear to belong to a particular caste or tribe , having no affinity to the nations of El Islam , but Pagan in its origin and Pagan still , though affecting to adopt the faith , while abjuring the manners of the Koran .

    " However this may be , the day after my arrival in Cairo , I joined a party of gentlemen who were going to witness what may be called the Egyptian opera , at the only place in the whole land of Isis where it is performed in perfection . My classical recollections caused me to picture to my imagination the groves of Daphne , the bowers of Paphos , and the blooming suburbs of Athens and Corinth ; but the village of the Ghawazi is surrounded by no such luxurious shades . It stands in the midst of the scorching sands , grey , dingy , half calcined by the sun ; though beneath those homely roofs were concealed some of the most magnificent female forms in

    Egypt . " When we approached the village , numbers of the girls came forth to meet us , clad in airy and bewitching costumes , their black hair entertwisted and glittering with ornaments of gold , the palms of their hands and tips of their fingers tinged with henna , so that each nymph reminded us of the Homeric rododadulos eos , their eyes , black and lustrous with kohl , and their whole forms breathing health and pleasure . We alighted at the door of a coffee-house , in which was a spacious saloon filled with Ghawaz i and Hawalim , who were tripping to and fro , with tinkling anklets , singing snatches of gay songs , not in mock merriment , but with a joyousness that was evidently genuine . of their dress

    " Nothing could exceed the negligence , not to say the audacity , . There was art in what they concealed , as well as in what they exhibited ; but upon the whole it was easy to perceive that their figures were rich and beautiful , though in general somew hat too much inclined to be plump- It is said that in the north small hands and feet are the exception—not the rule . In Egypt it is exactly the reverse . Nearly all the women have pretty feet and hands , and the largeness and fulness of the limbs make them appear even smaller than they are . In features the Ghawazi , of course , differed much from each other , but they were all fairer than any other class of women in tho country , and some had features singularly symmetrical nnd delicate . The mouth , abovo all things , was beautiful , and the lips being full and ruby-coloured , imparted to the whole countenance an air of extreme ; health tlstrengthened bthe sparkling brightness of the eyes .

    , greay y " With regard to their conversation , it was impossible to detect in it any dilleienco from that of other women , except tliat they talked a great deal more , apparently because they had inoro to nay . This fact may be rendered intellig ible by the circumstances of their lives , which ' familiarize them with high and low , learned and ignorant ; lrcsides , it is their business to make themselves agreeable , and this compels thorn to think a great deal more than their female neighbours , on the best means of uniting the utile with the dulne . Tho tokens of their profession were discoverable in thoir looks and gait , in their tolerance and equanimity . They sang Kong . s , sentimental and impassioned , but not licentious , and seemed to have among them cortain rules of decorum which it would havo been considered ill-bred o violate .

    " When they danced their lie phis ultra dances , it was not in public . They rrtired in pairs to separate rooms , with a musician and their audience , sina <» great , and there went through their various evolutions . Tho music ; to which they danced had only one merit ; that of beinp adapted to the occasion . Fur from being brilliant or scientific , it threw itself forth in giwlies und wails , abrupt , broken , fierce , and languishing by turns . J recollect no complete air ; but the cn » H , as i < were , of tunes , snatches of imperfect melody—haunt me from time to time , as . »< scraps of village songs used to haunt the memory of Rousseau . 1 have hum niusie was not scientific , but it was something better ; for it indicated by a pn >< 1 ' sion of sounds what the movements of the dunce would have been unable to expi *> - without , it . " . " When the soul in touched , it is immaterial through what instrumentality " < ' « worked upon . l \> r example , it inattemt not at all that , tho musician who ]) ln . y <« to the Ghawazi was a meagre old Arab , with sombre turban and habiliment * , » " | eyes half closed by drowsy sentiment ; that , be beat upon a rude drum , or cbci < sounds from a fluto which , for aught f know , might have been taken from

    coflins of tho Pharaohs . . " The arrangement of the notes was inexpressibly delightful , und affected ¦ ' •> soul in a manner inexplicable by any art , of mine . Passion , noisy , an it worn , i " upper development , becomes quiet—hiinhu ( i almost silent , a « you touch its dep and occasionally sends forth a wail which might be confounded with that <« 1 ) 1 U » but for a tone of aweetneiH that porvadtiH it .

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), Dec. 18, 1852, page 16, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_18121852/page/16/