We had been showed dances
in Concepcion and Isabella, but here in Cuba, in this inland
town, Jerez and Luis and I were given to see a great and
formal dance, arranged all in honor of us, gods descended
for our own reasons to mix with men! They danced in the
square, but first they made us a feast with _hutias_ and cassava
and fish and fruit and a drink not unlike mead, exhilarating
but not bestowing drunkenness. Grapes were all over these
lands, purple clusters hanging high and low, but they knew
not wine.
Men and women danced, now in separate bands, now
mingled together. Decorum was kept. We afterwards
knew that it had been a religious dance. They had war
dances, hunting dances, dances at the planting of their corn,
ghost dances and others. This now was a thing to watch,
like a beautiful masque. They were very graceful, very supple;
they had their own dignity.
We learned much in the three days we spent in this town.
Men and women for instance! That nakedness of the body,
that free and public mingling, going about work and adventure
and play together, worked, thought Juan Lepe no
harm. Later on in this vast adventure of a new world,
some of our churchmen were given to asserting that they
lived like animals, though the animals also are there slandered!
The women were free and complaisant; there were
many children about.
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