Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 6.djvu/835

Rh DANCE tlie sexes. Actual contact of the partners, however, is quite intelligible as matter of pure dancing ; for, apart altogether from the pleasure of the embrace, the harmony of the double rotation adds very much to the enjoyment. In a very old Peruvian dance of ceremony before the Inca, several hundreds of men formed a chain, each taking hold of the hand of the man beyond his immediate neighbour, and the whole body moving forwards and backwards three steps at a time as they approached the throne. In this, as in the national dance of the Coles of Lower Bengal, there was perhaps a suggestion of &quot; 1 union fait le force.&quot; In Yucatan stilts were occasionally used or dancing. It seldom happens that dancing takes placs without accompaniment, either by the dancer or by others. This is not merely because the feelings which find relief in dancing express themselves at the same time in other forms ; in some cases, indeed, the vocal and instrumental elements largely predominate, and form the ground-work of the whole emotional demonstration. Whether they do so or not will of course depend on the intellectual advancement of the nation or tribe, and upon the particular development of their a^sthetical sensibility. A striking instance occurs among the Zulus, whose grand dances are merely the accompaniment to the colloquial war and hunting songs, in which the women put questions which are answered by the men. So also in Tahiti there is a set of national ballads and songs, referring to many events in the past and present lives of the people. The fisherman, the woodsman, the canoe-builder, has each his trade song, which on public occasions at least is illustrated by dancing. But the accompaniment is often consciously intended, by an appeal to the ear, to regulate and sustain the excitement of the muscles. And a close relation will be found always to exist between the excellence of a nation s dancing and the excellence or complexity of its music and poetry. In some cases the performer himself sings or marks time by the clanking of ornaments on his person. In others the accompaniment consists sometimes of a rude chant impro vised by those standing round, or of music from instru ments, or of mere clapping of the hands, or of striking one stick against another or on the ground, or of &quot; marking time,&quot; in the technical sense. The Tasmanians beat on a rolled up kangaroo-skin. The Kamchadales make a noise like a continuous hiccough all through the dance. The Andamans use a large hollow dancing-board, on which one man is set apart to stamp. Sometimes it is the privilege of the tribal chief to sing the accompaniment while his people dance. The savages of New Caledonia whistle and strike upon the hip. The rude imitative dances of early civilization are of extreme interest. In the same way, the dances of the Ostyak tribes (Northern Asiatic) imitate the habitual sports of the chase and the gambols of the wolf and the bear and other wild beasts, the dancing consisting mainly of sudden leaps and violent turns which exhaust the muscular powers of the whole body. The Kamchadales, too, in dancing, imitate bears, dogs, and birds. The Kru dances of the (&quot;oast Negroes represent hunting scenes ; and on the Congo, before the hunters start, they go through a dance imitating the habits of the gorilla and its movements when attacked. The Damara dance is a mimic representation of the move ments of oxen and sheep, four men stooping with their heads in contact, and uttering harsh cries. The canter of the baboon is the humorous part of the ceremony. The Bushmen dance in long irregular jumps, which they com pare to the leaping of a herd of calves, and the Hottentots not only go on all- fours to counterfeit the baboon, but they have a dance in which the buzzing of a swarm of bees is represented. The Kennowits in Borneo introduce the mias and the deer for the same purpose. The Austra lians and Tasmanians in their dances called corrohories imi tate the frog and the kangaroo (both leaping animals). The hunt of the emu is also performed, a number of men passing slowly round the fire and thro wing their arrows about so as to imitate the movements of the animal s head while feeding. The Gonds are fond of dancing the bison hunt, one man with skin and horns taking the part of the animal. Closely allied to these are the mimic fights, almost universal among tribes to which war is one of the great interests of life. The Bravery Dance of the Dahomans and the Hoolee of the Bhil tribe in the Vindhya Hills are illustrations. The latter seems to have been reduced to an amusement conducted by professionals who go from village to village, the battle being engaged in by women with long poles on the one side, and men with short cudgels on the other. There is here an element of comedy, which also appears in the Fiji club-dance. This, although no doubt originally suggested by war, is enlivened by the presence of a clown covered with leaves and wearing a mask. The monotonous song accompanying the club-dance is by way of commentary or explanation. So also, in Guatemala there is a public baile or dance, in which all the performers, wearing the skins and heads of beasts, go through a mock battle, which always ends in the victory of those wearing the deer s head. At the end the victors trace in the sand with a pole the figure of some animal ; and this exhibition is supposed to have Some historical reference. But nearly all savage tribes have a regular war-dance, in which they appear in fighting costume, handle their weapons, and go through the movements of challenge, conflict, pursuit or defeat. The women generally supply the stimulus of music. There is one very picturesque dance of the Natal Kaffirs, which probably refers to the departure of the warriors for the battle. The women appeal plaintively to the men, who slowly withdraw, stamping on the ground and darting their short spears or assegais towards the sky. In Madagascar, when the men are absent on war, the women dance for a great part of the day, believing that this inspires their husbands with courage. In this, however, there may be some religious significance. These war- dances are totally distinct from the Institution of military drill, which belongs to a later period, when social life has become less impulsive and more reflective. 1 There can be little doubt that some of the characteristic movements of these primitive hunting and war-dances survive in the smooth and ceremonious dances of the present day. But the early mimetic dance was not confined to these two subjects ; it embraced the other great events of savage life the drama of courtship and marriage, the f uneral dance, the consecration of labour, the celebration of harvest or vintage; 2 sometimes, too, purely fictitious scenes of dramatic interest, while other dances degenerated into games. For instance, in Yucatan one man danced in a cowering attitude round a circle, while another followed, hurling at him bohordos or canes, which were adroitly caught on a small stick. Again, in Tasmania, the dances of the women describe their clamber for the opossum, diving for shell fish, digging for roots, nursing children, and quarrelling with husbands.&quot; Another dance, in which a woman by gesture taunts a chieftain with cowardice, gives him an opportunity of coming forward and recounting his cour ageous deeds in dance. The funeral dance of the Todas (another Indian hill tribe), consists in walking backwards and forwards, without variation, to a howling tune of &quot; ha ! hoo ! &quot; The meaning of this is obscure, but it can 1 The Greek wapirffa represented the surprize by robbers of a warrior ploughing a field. The gymnopredic dances imitated the sterner spor of the palrestra. season^
 * The Greek Lenaia and Dionysia had a distinct reference to ti