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SUNLIGHT 141
of their play a gesture will suddenly break through the
feeble barriers and expand into a passionate swing of
the dance, which reveals that even at this early age
both the required tension and the sppr harmony
are already present.
It is in the dance that the exuberant life of Anda-
lusia attains its highest expression, and rhythm blos-
soms so luxuriantly in this country that it perishes of
its own excess, like the agave of the mountains. Be-
yond the hot whirling maelstrom of passion, embodied
in the dance, lies animal nature; but the joy of life
plays in leaping tongues of fire about the trembling
edge of the whirlpool, and at the bottom of its crater
quakes the lust of life, burning, breathing purple, like
the deep tint in the calyx of the cactus-blossom.
Andalusian dances cannot be described; they must be
seen, and not on the stage, in foreign parts, but here
in their home, preferably in the poorer quarters, as
they are danced by a girl of the common people who
knows no bonds that can be imposed upon her young
vigor.
You may find happy creatures among these people,
but no philosophers. When they are alone, you have
the impression that their mental life proceeds in a
vegetating manner like that of children, fluttering from
impression to impression. They talk aloud to them-
selves, or with the flowers, animals and stones—lead-
ing a life of communication with these objects. In the
villages of Alpujarra, the people practice sericulture,
and on rainy days the women will approach the silk-
worm and strike their castanets for its amusement, so
that the worm may feel more gay and show a better
appetite. They make direct inferences from their
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