Publisher's Synopsis
"Looking at no one, she raised her arms slowly until they were above her shoulders; and all in an instant she was no longer a woman, but a statue in bronze. Her body tense, her eyes locked, there was no motion except that periodically one finger-tip quivered, one eyebrow tilted. Long she stood like an image from the temple, then gently she tapped one foot, and sounded her ankle bells. At first the bells murmured like fairy chimes in far-off chorus; then the set chord swelled and swelled and swelled until, like endless thunder, it closed in an pressed. And suddenly the woman was all motion, all a furious whirl. Her naked feet struck the floor in quick explosions, her arms were circles of grace, her body a pivot of passion. But only an instant she danced in ecstatic torment; then once more she was tense, her eyes locked, one finger-tip quivering." "From the body of the woman rose the perfume of ambergris and musk, of frangipani and attar of roses. The room was close and I was rising with Rembha from the foam; like foam I was floating with her to Mount Meru. I saw the Apsarases dancing before the god Indra. I knew the heavy drug of sensual beauty.. My servant touched me. The dance was ended." (Chapter XXX. The Dance of the Nutch Girl.)
