2-981-873 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

Lama Dance at Jummoo, performed before the Prince of Wales, from a sketch by one of our special artists, 1876. '...a weird terrible performance of Lamas from Thibet...[there were] four large brazen trumpets...six or seven feet long, which gave forth a deep sound, as if it were the grumble of an earthquake; there were four drums, reminding one of the old traditional warming-pan...a wild gust of noise from them ushered in the dancers, who came along jumping and whirling in the most outrageous costumes...all the dancers had the heads of animals, exactly like what we see in a pantomime: there were ox heads, boar heads, elephant heads...We were led to understand that symbolism was expressed in the costumes, the heads, and in the various parts of this uncouth performance; but its meaning was not at all clear to our Western ideas. Some of the dancers had a large white skull embroidered on their breasts...From "Illustrated London News", 1876.