removed.

Siam was content with the Indian style of dramatic and Pantomimic
entertainments. Theatrical performances were also slightly known--though
no regular type of drama is known--amongst the South Sea Islanders, the
Peruvians, the Aztecs, the Zulus, and the Fijis, the two last named
having a similar version of our popular Pantomime subject, "Jack and the
Beanstalk."

The Egyptians possessed no regular type of drama, yet in both the Books
of Job and Ruth the dramatic element is strongly marked. At the rustic
festivals of the native gods, as in Greece and Italy, there was,
however, the dramatic elements of the union of song, dance, and
Pantomime, and we are told that the priests not only studied music, but
also taught the art to others. Again in the rites of the dead the
Mysteries of the sepulture over the transmigration of souls, the
dramatic element entered largely into these mystic rites and
celebrations. Amongst the Pagan Greeks, as I have previously stated, and
the Romans, we learn of similar celebrations, carried out with great
pomp and ceremony, such as the apotheosis of the soul departing from its
earthly to its heavenly abode.




CHAPTER IV.

"Dancing," _i.e._ Pantomime--Grecian Dancing and Pantomimic
Scenes--Aristotle--Homer--Dances common to both Greeks and Romans.