|
"Once the work is done, the women cook, while others set about preparing a hearty 'stew' of whiskey, hot water, sugar, spices and butter. Then both sexes join in for a joyful dance....they use their toes and heels in the English and Irish jigs, hornpipes, reels, and other dances in an extraordinarily nimble way so that it sounds almost like castanets. They don't tire of dancing, and fairly frequently the sun rises from it's bed before the celebration breaks up."
from "Women In The Backwoods"
In The Arkansas Backwoods
Tales & Sketches 1840
by Friedric Gerstacker |
|
|
This is a drawing of the old mountain square dance as seen in progress at a place known as "The Spot", deep down in the hills of Dent County, Missouri. It is quite a distance from town, and a place at which the mountaineers gather in from all directions, drink beer, liquor, and dance from early in the evening until the "ol' gray rooster" crows the next morning.
They are seen here as they dance the well-known figure, "Cheat or swing." The dance started at the scream of the fiddle on the tune "Hell Up Skunk River," when the caller began to clap his hands, stamp his feet, and cry out:
"All to your places
and straighten up your faces,
take up your back-bands
and straighten out your traces!
Now you dance, and now you swing,,
and how can you cheat that purty little thing.
Half way round, then turn back, with the lady
in front and the gent behind,
and swing "em around till they go stone-blind!"
continued |
|
