The hennaed hands of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert

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Posted by Catherine Cartwright Jones on September 20, 1999 at 18:04:43:

Just in case you thought Monday might suck, or if you thought the
history of henna might be tedious and predictable:

Backtrack, and disco soundbed.... (Bear with me) (I shit you not!)
(set your coffee to the side, the Reverand Bunny does not want you to
trash your keyboard)

I found this glorious thing diving like a ferret up the pantleg of
the KSU 14 story research library, and spent 2 weeks thinking of
several possible headers for the post:
"The Hennaed Rock'n'Roll Jewish Drag Queens of Egypt, Contemporary of
Beethoven's 7th Symphony" or "Cairo is Burning" or "Ru Paul's
Previous Incarnation as a Hennaed Egyptian Queen", or "Jewish Drag
Queens at the Night of the Henna". However, since Jeremy's under
pressure to get this forum off of the Oxford U's Biochemistry
server...some of those titles might just draw enough hits to crash
the whole system.

And...not only do I have this quote, but I have reference and
provenance to show that this was a continuing tradition from at least
1200 AD Bagdad to 1970 AD Sudan. I waited to post this until I had
several bibliographic sources to verify it. If I had found only one
source, I would be sure something was not smoking just Marlboros.
(email me if you want the biblio list)

Quoted from "An Account of the Manners and Custome of the Modern
Egyptians, Written in Egypt during the Years 1833, -34, and 35, partly
from notes made from 1825, -26, -27 , and -28" by Edward William
Lane; published in London, by John Murray, Albermarle Street, 1871.

(previous chapter deals with the henna traditions and other habits of
female entertainers and prostitutes in early 19th century Cairo)

"Many of the people of Cairo, affecting, or presuading themselves, to
consider that there is nothing improper in the dancing of the Ghawazee
but the fact of its being performed by females, who ought not this to
expose themselves, employ men to dance in the same mammer: but the
mumber of these male performers, who are mostly young men, and who are
called "Khawals," is very small. They are Muslims and natives of
Egypt. As they personate women, their dances are exactly of the same
description of the Ghawazee; and are in like manner, accompanie4d by
the sonds of castanes: but, as it to prevent their being thought to be
really females, their dress is suited to their unnatural profession;
being partly male and partly felame; it cheifly consists of a tight
vest, a girdle and a kind of petticoat. Their general appearance,
however is more feminine than masculine: they suffer the hair of the
head to grow long, and generally braid it, in the "manner of the
owmen; the hair on the face, when it begins to grow, the pluck it out;
and they imitate the women also in applying kohl and henna to their
eyes and hands. In the streets, when not engaged in dancing they often
even veil their faces; not from shame, but merely to affect the
manners of women. They are often employed, in preference to the
Gawazee, to dance before a house, or in its court, on the occasion of
a marriage-fete, or the birth of a child, or a circumcision, and
frequently perform at public festivals.
"There is, in Cairo, another class of male dancers, young men and
boys, whose performances, dress and general appearance are almost
exaclty similar ot those of the Khawals; but who are distunguished by
a different appelation, which is "Gink"; a term that is Turkish and
has a vulgar signification which aptly expresses their character.
Thery are generally Jews, Armenians, Greeks and Turks."

I have several other sources that describe men who live 24-7 in drag,
who sing and dance at henna parties and circumcisions, and festivals,
who wear henna and kohl...and that they are preferable to women
entertainers in that if a woman hires a drag queen to ent

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