Military life in Italy : sketches - Societa italiana di storia militare

THE CAMP. 229
put the left foot forward, bend their knees, turn their faces
"
toward the leader : Well, are you going to "
play, or not ?
The couples grow impatient, tap their feet, shake their fists,
twist themselves, puff, shout ;
the leader makes a sign with his
finger, the instruments are placed at the mouths, the tongues
protrude and moisten the upper and lower lips ;
another sign,
and they begin to play. The couples are in motion, turn, return,
touch each other, meet, dash right and left, forward,
backward, back to back, hip to hip, the heels on their neighbors'
corns, a,way they go blindly, just as it happens,
fall or
not as the case may be ;
there must be place for every one, if
not, they
make it
by
blows and kicks, they push, stagger, shout,
and grin. In a moment the grass in the field has disappeared
under the heavy feet, the ground is broken up, the couples get
mixed, divided, or grouped differently ;
others fall flat to the
ground, and the dancers, pressed over them, stumble and tumble
on to them ;
others were dashed into the midst of the surrounding
crowd; but, in the midst of that hurly-burly, the Lombardian
continues to dance imperturbably with that swaying of the
hips and motion of the head and shoulders, that crossing of
legs and sudden bending of the knee as if on the point of falling,
that sudden rising as if on springs ;
the Piedmontese goes
on impassible and grave, and takes things seriously, warms
up to his work, and is
proud too of his robust graces;
Calabrians, two by two, facing each other, their
and the
necks crooked,
arms akimbo, their faces in grotesque shapes, upright or
doubled, continue to dash rapidly over the ground.
What is the matter ?
A sudden deep silence has fallen upon the camp ;
all faces
turn in one direction ;
he who was on the ground rises ;
he who