Illustration for Raymond Roussel’s
Impressions of Africa. (by Monica René Rochester, 2011)
The Luen Shetuz (excerpt from Chapter 2)
“At this point the Emperor’s wives advanced to the middle of the esplanade.
Rao joined them soon after, carrying a heavy earthenware pot, which he placed on the ground in their midst.
The ten young women fell to the ground together, around the container, which was full of thick, black foodstuff; they ate hungrily using their hands to convey it to their lips.
In a few minutes, the earthenware pot, completely empty, was removed by Rao. The women, thus fortified, took their places for the Luen’ Shetuz, a religious dance which was held in great respect in the country and was specially reserved for great ceremonial occasions.
They began with a few slow steps, mingled with lithe, sinuous movements.
From time to time they emitted from their wide-open mouths terrifying belches, which soon increased at an extraordinary rate. Instead of stifling these revolting sounds, they forced them out, as if competing with each other to see who could produce the loudest noise with the most ostentation.
This general chorus, providing a kind of musical accompaniment to the slow, graceful dance, exhibited the peculiar virtues of the unknown substance they had just eaten.
Little by little, the dance grew more lively and assumed a fantastic quality, while the frequency and volume of the noises increased in a powerful crescendo.
There was a moment of impressive climax, during which the harsh, deafening sounds marked the rhythm of a diabolic saraband; the feverish ballerinas, disheveled and racked by their terrible belching as if by blows, crossed and followed one another, and twisted themselves in every sort of contortion, as if overcome by a vertiginous delirium.
Then gradually everything grew calm and, after a long diminuendo, the ballet ended in an apotheosis, accompanied by a sustained final chord which gradually faded into silence.
Soon the young women, still shaken by delayed hiccups, returned with slow steps to their original places.”
