in fact some two hundred of the patrician 's guests were now staggering and kicking their way through the serpent dance , a quaint morporkian folkway which consisted of getting rather drunk , holding the waist of the person in front , and then wobbling and giggling uproariously in a long crocodile that wound through as many rooms as possible , preferably ones with breakables in , while kicking one leg vaguely in time with the beat , or at least in time with some other beat .