Next to singing, their favourite pastime is, to “trip the light fantastic toe,” and at this sport they are indefatigable. These dancing parties are differently conducted; at some are danced quadrilles! (I am not aware if the gallopades and Mazurka have found their way into these _coteries_ at present, but as all negroes are great sticklers for fashion, I suppose they have,) at others only country dances and reels are introduced; while the Africans are content with their own native dance, and their music of the _Bangoe_ and _Tum-tum_. Christmas is the principal season for these assemblies, although there are subscription balls held once or twice a week in some of the small houses at the back of the town. These meetings may be very agreeable to the negroes, but they are anything but agreeable to those unfortunates who may chance to inhabit houses in the vicinity. Little or no sleep will visit their eyes upon those nights dedicated to gay Terpsichore, and they may be led to misquote Shakspeare, and say, “_Dancing_ murders sleep.” The music generally consists of a squeaking fiddle, a tamborine, (upon which they have a peculiar way of performing,) and a triangle, played without any regard to time or melody. The worst characters frequent these houses, and the refreshments are always levied by contributions upon the public.
Some of the Christmas balls (or as it is the fashion now to term them, “quadrille parties”) are, however, conducted upon a very grand scale. The ball-room is decorated with branches of the cocoa-nut, interspersed with the many beautiful flowers which, in these sunny climes, grow in such wild profusion, while boughs of the Pimento (or “Christmas bush,” as it is generally called in this country) and the orange tree, loaded with its tempting fruit, impart a pleasing fragrance throughout the apartment. Around the walls, brackets of deal are nailed to support the innumerable tapers which serve to light up this “temple of mirth,” and throw a radiance upon the countenances of the ebon beaux and belles. The orchestra generally occupies one end of the apartment; and the company is arranged, in two lines, the ladies upon one side, and the gentlemen upon the other. The glittering throng at “Almacks” cannot outvie in dress with the _glittering throng_ at an Antiguan negro ball. Fashion exerts her power, and seldom finds more devoted votaries than among these dark damsels and their loving swains.