ALMANZA, a small town in New Castile, in Spain, remarkable for the battle fought in its neighbourhood, in 1707, in which the French, under marshal Berwick, de feated the allies under the marquis de las Minos, and the earl of Galway, and secured the Spanish throne for Philip the V. Population 1600. (in) ALM Eli, or ALMA, in Eastern manners, singing or dancing girls, who, like the improvisatori of Italy, can oc casionally pour forth extemporaneous poetry. We have been favoured with an account of an entertainment given by a native of the country to the ladies and gentlemen of the Presidency of Madras, treating concisely on the general principle of their dancing and singing, which we shall introduce after having given an account of the an tiquity, customs, and manners, of this class of females.
The practice of educating and maintaining dancing girls, appears to have existed among the Hindoos from the remotest ages. From diem the custom descended to the Israelites, as we learn from the history of David. They are called almeh, because they are better educated than the other females of the country, in which they form a celebrated society, and the entertainment which they supply is called notch, or the feats of dancing girls.
The qualifications requisite for admission into the so ciety of these females, are a good voice, a knowledge of the language, and of the rules of poetry, and an ability to adapt their songs to the occasion on which they have been called. They add to the splendour and the enter tainment of a marriage, where they precede the bride, playing on instruments ; and they increase the lamenta tions and the solemnity of funerals, by every tone of sor row, and every gesture of grief and of despair. It is, however, but for the rich men and the powerful, that the most elegant class allow themselves to mourn, or to re joice. In the lower order, there is also an inferior class, whose imitations of the former are but humble ; without the knowledge, the elegance, or the grace of the higher order, they frequent the public places and the general walks ; and to a polished mind, create disgust when they wish to allure. The almeh of the higher class know by heart all the new songs ; they commit to memory the most beautiful elegiac hymns, that bewail the death of a hero, or the successes or misfortunes incident to love. No festival can be complete without their attendance ; nor is there an entertainment in which the almeh is not an ornament, or the chief excitement of pleasurable, and zoo popular sensations.
If the European of high life has instrumental music during his public entertainments, the more luxurious Asiatic produces enjoyments for the eye and for the ear. Senses equally capricious are regaled with sensations more entrancing and aerial than the gross enjoyments of the palate. When the stranger has been satiated, and the taste has been glutted with its enjoyment, the al meh descend into the saloon, and form dances unallied in either figure or step to those of Europe. The usual oc currences of life are sometimes represented by them ; hut they arc principally employed to depict the origin, the growth, the successes, the misfortunes, or the mys teries of love. Their bodies are surprisingly flexible, and their command of countenance leads the spectator almost from the fable of the scene, to the reality of life ; the :adecency of their attitudes and of their dress is fre quently carried to excess. Their looks, their gestures, every thing speaks the wamth of their agitations, and that with so unequivocal or so bold an accent, that a foreigner to their language needs not a preparation for the approaching witchery of feeling ; they lay aside their veils, and with them their small remains of female timidity. A long robe of very thin silk goes down to their heels, which is but slightly fastened with a rich girdle, perhaps the original of the cestus, whilst their long black hair, braided and perfumed, entangles and captivates, in the language of the poet of Shiray, "the hearts of their beholders." A shift, as transparent. as the finest gauzes of their country, scarcely hides their bosoms, which they wish as little to conceal ; the shape, the contour of their bodies, seem to develope themselves successively, as their motions are regulated by the sounds of the flute, the castanet, the tambours de basque, and the cymbals. Whilst their inclinations are in flamed by songs adapted to the scene, they appear in an intoxication of the senses, in a voluptuous delirium ; they throw off every reserve, they abandon themselves to the overwhelming disorder of their senses ; and then it is that a people, who, in their chastest moments, are far from delicate, and who almost detest the retiring modesty of nature ; then it is that their auditors re double their applauses, which, stimulating the almeh, increase their efforts to delight and entrance the specta tors.