![](../../icons/shim.gif) |
The hennaed hands of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert
[ Follow-ups ] [ Post Follow-up ] [ The Henna Page Discussion Forum ] [ FAQ ]
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
Follow-ups:
|