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There was a beating in my belly. Syncopated rhythms surged inside me. I felt sick. It was music, but not any music I loved. An alien music had taken hold of me. The drummer struck and struck again at my innards, and my thighs were moving to the rhythm without my will. I could not think, and the corners of my mouth moved in a rictus. The harsh notes of a shawm suddenly echoed through my head. I opened my eyes wide, and swirling lights invaded me. I fainted away.
I came to again, feeling smooth hands caressing my forehead and my hands, and the music went on. Cautiously, I opened my eyes for a moment again. It was a large, but low and cavernous room. Fires were alight, burning with strange colours and odours. The music was insistent. In my brief glimpse, I saw a circle of men dancing in that rhythm which I had felt inside me, so loud were the drums. My head was still swimming, and there was a throbbing pain behind my right ear. I groaned.
A sweet voice spoke close. It was a strange dialect, but the voice was at once soothing and siren. I opened my eyes once more, and found that three young women sat close to me, where I was half-lying, half-sitting on a sort of rough divan. They seemed both wild and soft in the half-light, and they were still caressing my body.
The thrusting movements of the dancers intensified, and I glimpsed in the shifting light the phallus of each one swaying from side to side in the movements of the dance. The companion at my left moved her hand down to caress my thigh, and the music quickened. I felt myself respond. I gripped the couch with my hands, and shifted to a half-kneeling half-sitting position, wondering what might come and what I would do.
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