Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 24, 1913.djvu/309

 The Poetry of the Khvai Papuans. 287

song and dance succeed another, each with a different tune, and there is no connection between the various dances.

The texts of these songs are very poor from a Hterary point of view, in many cases only comprising two words which are repeated over and over again in a sHghtly varying form. Naturally such rudimentary texts do not greatly assist the uninitiated to understand the dances. But these fragments express a much fuller idea to the imaginative minds of the people themselves, who often attribute to the texts a meaning which cannot be deduced from the mere words. The following songs of osare dances exemplify this.

a. " Eh, tetnaio, tonaia, eh, Daruao tcmaia." Tenia means smoke, and Daru is the name of an island. The natives explain the meaning of the song as follows : — (I retain throughout this paper their original expressions in " pidgin " English) : " Some man he go along canoe, he see smoke, that smoke he come from Daru."

b. " Eh, luadiiria ivadiirie sakiipe sakupea waditria wadii- rie." Wadiini is a tobacco pipe of bamboo, and sakiipa or sogtiba is tobacco. This is the meaning: — " Give me bamboo pipe, I want smoke."

c. " Teviarore tcmarorea viabo teinaroj'e temarorea." Tcina means smoke, and mabo root or base. The song says: — " Smoke he come up, man he make him fire, smoke on top, fire inside."

The meaning of the songs is often given more or less differently by different people, particularly when the mimetic character of the dances is not sufficiently pro- nounced to contribute to the interpretation of the songs.

B. Sei)ii-Mimetic Songs and Dances.

A category of songs somewhat similar to the last com- prises those which form a descriptive accompaniment to the performance of certain rites. Songs of this kind, however.