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Debussy decided to visit the Javanese
kampong
. The Fair’s organizers had
taken a piece of the Oceanic island and grafted it on the southeast section of
the Champ deMars in Paris, just steps away from the Rue de Grenelle. Young
dancers from a harem were staying in the village from Southeast Asia. They
belonged to a prince namedMankaNegara, who had, in his great generosity,
agreed to “loan” his women. Others vaunted the merits of the Annamite
theater and the beauty of the Chinese pavilions. Debussy, whose tropism for
Asian cultures was expanding, set out. He first crossed Rue du Caire, which
was also one of the Fair’s major attractions, featuring a series of white
houseswith corbelled floors andmashrabiyas, behindwhich captivewomen
were concealed from view. He sometimes tried to perceive them behind the
closed shutters. In vain. After slaloming through the white donkeys led by
young fellahs and the whirling dervishes, crossing countries and continents,
24 DEBUSSY, RAVEL_STRING QUARTETS