Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 20, 1909.djvu/528

 464 Customs of the Lower Congo People.

or with a stick, or vibrated with friction. The drum and the beat indicate the kind of dance, as certain drums only are used for certain dances. To European eyes there is not much "poetry of movement" about their dances. There is a raising of the shoulders, a wriggling of the buttocks, a quivering of the posterior, and a throwing up of the legs, with occasional jumps in the air. The move- ments are sometimes suggestive and obscene, and in one or two dances the opposite sexes embrace, such dances leading to much immorality.

In their dances there are two formations — the circle and lines. In the former they dance round a drum or a fetish image, or both, one or both being placed in the centre of an open space, and men and women join, without order, in clapping their hands, chanting a chorus, and shuffling one behind the other in a circle ; in the latter, two lines are formed, — one of men and the other of an equal number of women. The drum is placed at one end of the line, and all begin to clap, chant, shuffle, and wriggle together. A man then advances, dancing, and a woman from the opposite line advances a few paces, and they dance thus a few moments with a space of two to three yards between them, next they retire, and others take their places, and so on, right down the lines ; and then they start again and again.

The following are the names and particulars of various dances. In their chants and choruses so many obsolete words are used that the singers themselves do not know what they mean. They seem to have become mere nonsense phrases that fit the rhythm of the beaten drums.

I. Ekhui. This is a fetish dance, and is continued all night, with much palm-wine drinking. It is a circular dance, and is performed while the " ngang' a lembe " is making medicine for his patient. The fetish is put in the middle of the circle, and the drum behind the patient. The drum is beaten and rattle shaken, and the people