An "Ottawa March" was a great
institution. Couples formed up as though for a country dance, the
band struck up some rollicking tune, the leader shouted his
directions, and fifty couples whirled and twirled, and skated
backwards or forwards as he ordered, going through the most
complicated evolutions, in pairs or fours or singly, joining here,
parting there, but all in perfect time. Woe betide the leader
should he lose his head! A hundred people would get tangled up in
a hideous confusion, and there was nothing for it but to begin all
over again.
It is curious that in countries like England and Prance, where
from the climatic conditions skating must be a very occasional
amusement, there is a special word for the pastime, and that in
Germany and Russia, where every winter brings its skating as a
matter of course, there should be no word for it. "Skate" in
English, and patiner in French, mean propelling oneself on iron
runners over ice, and nothing else; whereas in German there is
only the clumsy compound-word Schlittschuh-laufen, which means "to
run on sledge shoes," and in Russian it is called in equally
roundabout fashion Katatsa-na-konkach, or literally "to roll on
little horses," hardly a felicitous expression.
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