Around the fire of the village council the mood of the evening was taking a turn for the better. The drums began to fall into a familiar rhythm, the lute began to match with a melody dating back to the old empire.
Jezebel stood up from the ring of tables around the central fire, and began walking towards the flames.
She was dressed in her best garments, which managed to advertise her high position in the Phoenician community, while also showing off a great deal of her feminine physique. The fabrics of her garment were of azure and green and grey, like the seas that her people had so often made their living. The skirt covered her waist, and draped to her feet, but with a cut along one side so that when she moved quickly one or more legs flashed visibly. Above her waist she wore little other than a pair of shells held in place by intricate metalwork, and a cape that matched her lower garment.
She held an instrument like a tambourine, with a jaguar skin making the taut drum skin, wound around a wooden ring from a baobab tree. The noisy trinkets that adorned the ring were made of the iridescent shells of oysters, some of the most prized remnants of the ancient Phoenician community’s riches of the sea.
The drummer must have been a bit caught off guard, because the beat nearly died away with Jezebel’s approach to the center of the ring. The lute stopped playing entirely. However, as she turned, and stared out into the darkened circle around her, the beat revived, with a bit more intensity. Jezebel began swaying to the beat, and slowly turned her head as she raised the tambourine above her head in what was clearly the starting position of some kind of traditional dance.
Boom, bum bum bum
Boom, bum bum bum
…went the drum
Cha , cha
…the tambourine responded
Jezebel began swaying more intensely, moving her arms and hips in slow undulating circles, always keeping time with the intensifying beat.
Since memory began, the Phoenicians had a special dance to an ancient god Baal Marquod: the Lord of the Dance. The tambourine held special significance in such ceremonies, and invoked the divine into the dance of the petitioner. For Jezebel, a touch of the divine would not be out of place, for she wanted her dance to positively entrance the leading men of the village.
The purpose of dances like this is to intoxicate of course, and entrance, and Jezebel was succeeding on both counts. At one point, a young leading man by the name of Hammurabi dropped his mug of mead, much to his chagrin. But these dances also served another, more utilitarian purpose. By performing the graceful, the powerful, and yes even the seductive movements of the dance, Jezebel was advertising not only her wealth of dress and adornment, but also her impeccable physical health of motion. An advertisement that she would be able to bear many healthy children.
As the dance came to a close some of the men of the room were positively stupefied, some were shaking their heads as if shaking off some spell, while some were thinking very private thoughts and feeling very powerful stirrings of emotion.
For her part Jezebel wondered, how will these leading townspeople interpret such a dance? These other “Babylonians” were as foreign to each other sometimes as they were to the community of Phoenicians. In this day, there was this tremendous opportunity for these disparate tribes and communities to come together to do great things. However, it was always a risk to show too much of one’s own culture, for fear of shocking or alienating others. Had she gotten the formula right? Had she managed to raise the interest of a powerful leading male as a potential suitor? That young man from the Sin-Muballit clan sure seemed to have been affected. How would this all be received? “What is done is done” Jezebel told herself, “let us see how this plays out”.
Around the campfire, as Jezebel exited the circle, and then the room, the mood would have to be likened to a state of stunned silence. Men stared into their mugs, and women gave each other questioning glances, until the lute finally began to strum a couple of tentative chords. Everyone knew that the Phoenicians were a powerful and resourceful community within the town. Everyone also knew that Ethbaal, the leader of the clan had passed away only days before, as the funereal ceremony drew much interest from the larger Babylonian public. Not as much interest as this however. Was the daughter of Ethbaal actively courting an outside marriage? What sort of an advantage could be gained by partnership with such a tightknit, but ultimately admirable community?
