Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 47.djvu/378

366 spontaneous expressions of applause and loyalty, gradually pass into ceremonial observances used for purposes of propitiation. It becomes the policy to please the ruler by repetitions of these songs describing his great deeds, and of the dances expressive of joy at his presence. Describing the Marutse, Holub says:—

"All the musicians [of the royal band] were obliged to be singers as welL having to screech out the king's praises between the intervals in the music, or to a muffled accompaniment of their instruments."

So, Schweinfurth tells us that at the court of king Munza, the Monbutto ruler, there were professional musicians, ballad-singers, and dancers, whose leading function was to glorify and please the king. And in Dahomy, according to Burton, "the bards are of both sexes, and the women dwell in the palaces. . . the king keeps a whole troop of these laureates." Official praises of this kind are carried on by attendants not only of the king but of subordinate rulers. In processions in Ashantee, "each noble is attended by his flatterers, who proclaim, in boisterous songs, the 'strong names' of their master;" and on the Gold Coast, "every chief has a horn-blower, and a special air of his own." Similarly we learn from Park that among the Mandingos there are minstrels who "sing extempore songs in honor of their chief men, or any other persons who are willing to pay them:" showing us an unobtrusive divergence from the original function. Winterbottom indicates a like divergence.

"Among the Foolas there is a set of people called singing men, who, like the ancient bards, travel about the country singing the praises of those who choose to purchase renown."

Passing beyond Africa we read that in Madagascar "the sovereign has a large band of female singers, who attend in the courtyard, and who accompany their monarch whenever he takes an excursion." Raffles, too, says that in Java there are three classes of dancing-girls, who perform in public: 1. The concubines of the sovereign and of the hereditary prince. These are the most skillful. 2. The concubines of the nobles. 3. The common dancing girls of the country. In these cases we are shown that while saltatory and vocal forms of glorification, at first occasional and spontaneous, have become regular and ceremonial; and while those who perform them, no longer the people at large, have become a specialized class; two further changes have taken place. Instead of being both singers and dancers, as the primitive celebrants were, these permanent officials have become differentiated into the two classes, singers and dancers; and, if not of the singers, yet of the dancers we may remark that their performances, ceasing to be expressions of welcome and joy before the ruler, have grown into displays of agility and grace, and are gone through