Two hundred virgins pimp and preen,
The setting sun reflects on gleaming black skin,
Perspiration a silver sheen,
Suddenly, the signal for their dance to begin,
Locking arms, they join in tight line,
Beaded aprons hang from slim nubile waists,
Bare skin of pert breasts pressed
Close upon neighbouring backs,
Oiled and glowing, long spance of legs,
Erotic flow of gyrating hips,
Dance sweet young maiden initiates,
Shuffling feet that slide and stamp,
Through the baked earth of the *Venda camp,
Pebbles kicked, fly up in puffs of dust,
Forward, the human line wends and sways,
To the rhythmic throb of the ritual drums,
Sinuous wave of a moving snake,
Young hands clasping elbows, not letting go,
Trance-like in one body they flow,
Each maid a vertebra of the massive snake,
Into night they hip-sway to intoned song,
Fire banks flickering to see where they go,
Full hanging orb high in the moonlit sky,
clouds aroused by their mysterious charm,
Distorted shadows veil the wells of their eyes,
In the distance, a single hyena cries,
Moving in rapture to ancient primal gods,
Chant the village-song while the snake slithers on,
Early light presents the coming aloof dawn,
Slowly the Maids of the Domba dance
Know it is done.

Susan Jahme© Copyright 2003


'¢ Domba ' sacred python
'¢ Venda ' ancient tribal seat in far northern South Africa, (Transvaal region)
Where it is believed the people originated from the North African Angoni tribes.

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