Did she exist? Was she a real person or did someone make up the name as a gimmick to charm audiences?

Sol Bloom, a San Francisco businessman who traveled to England in 1889, where he first saw the Middle Eastern performers at the Crystal Palace Exhibition, became so enamored with the show that he was determined to bring them to America where the Chicago World's Fair was set to open in 1893. It took him over a year to arrange their passage, and since it would be some time before the Fair opened, they were put to work building the exhibitions.

In his autobiography, Sol Bloom stated that there was no performer called "Little Egypt" at the Chicago World's Fair. Although there were dancers from Egypt, Turkey, Tunisia, Morocco, and Persia, his favorite dancers were the Ouled Nail from Algeria.

In an E-Mail debate about the Belly Dancing movement in the United States, my opponent brought up the name of Little Egypt again as being the first Belly Dancer to perform at the Chicago World's Fair in 1893.

Again the mystery surfaces as I put down the phone after talking to Ben Traywick, historian of Tombstone, Arizona. What, you might say, has Little Egypt got to do with Tombstone, Arizona?

Well, many years ago I came across a book about the Wild West published by Time/Life in 1974 titled, "The Gunfighters". On page 23 there was a color photograph of a painting of a Belly Dancer who performed at the "Birdcage Theatre" in 1881. The "Birdcage" was a notorious bordello in Tombstone, Arizona, that featured a variety of acts from around the world to entertain the patrons.

I had always been meaning to investigate the validity of the article in Time/Life, and so still many years later I picked up the phone and called Arizona information and asked for the number of Tombstone and the Birdcage Theatre.

A Ms. Alice Moody, tourist receptionist for the Birdcage said, yes, the painting of the Belly Dancer still hung over the bar in the Birdcage. She would send me whatever information she could. A pamphlet arrived with the history of Tombstone and on a flyer of places to stay, Ms. Moody wrote: "Painting of Fatima, later known as "Little Egypt". The original painting of Fatima , who was an Oriental dancer - She played the Birdcage in 1881. The painting was a gift from Her to the birdcage to hang in the bar. It has hung there since 1882. Size of painting about five feet by eight feet tall - done by an Italian artist.

Ms. Moody had copied the information from a brass plaque which hung below the bar.

I put the question to Ben Traywick: Who was the woman in the painting? How did she get to Tombstone? Who hired her? How long did she perform at the Birdcage?

Ben Traywick said she probably came part by train and part by stagecoach, the Wild West being what it was in the 1800's. Mr. Traywick said that in those days agents booked performers in theatres similar to the Birdcage when different acts rotated on the United States circuit. Her tour may have begun in San Francisco or Chicago and may have lasted a year.

How did Fatima get to America? It appears from her costume that she might have been a Ghawazee. Her blouse is transparent and she looks relaxed and at ease in her surroundings. Her dance is accompanied by an Oudist, The scene looks authentic.

Most Belly Dancers think that the Belly Dance in America was first performed at the Chicago World's Fair in 1893. If this Fatima performed in Tombstone in 1881, and the Chicago World's Fair occurred in 1893, she preceded the Chicago World's Fair by twelve years.

Did she go back to Egypt? Did she perhaps join her kin and maybe perform in Chicago? When she traveled in America did she wear Victorian dress? How did she survive?

I sparked Ben Traywick's curiosity but he didn't have any more information for me. So all we know is that Fatima had performed in Tombstone and left.

Mr. Traywick and I exchanged phone numbers and addresses. If we have any more information I'll let you know. Meanwhile the mystery of "Little Egypt" continues.