We Henceforth Always Worked Into Each Other's Hands
By Saving A Little For Each Other; And When Some Of The Sticklers
For Use And Custom Grumbled, I Advised Them To Eat Like Men,
And Not Like Vultures.
As this was the first visit which Sekeletu had paid to this part
of his dominions, it was to
Many a season of great joy.
The head men of each village presented oxen, milk, and beer,
more than the horde which accompanied him could devour,
though their abilities in that line are something wonderful.
The people usually show their joy and work off their excitement
in dances and songs. The dance consists of the men standing nearly naked
in a circle, with clubs or small battle-axes in their hands,
and each roaring at the loudest pitch of his voice, while they simultaneously
lift one leg, stamp heavily twice with it, then lift the other
and give one stamp with that; this is the only movement in common.
The arms and head are often thrown about also in every direction;
and all this time the roaring is kept up with the utmost possible vigor;
the continued stamping makes a cloud of dust ascend, and they leave
a deep ring in the ground where they stood. If the scene
were witnessed in a lunatic asylum it would be nothing out of the way,
and quite appropriate even, as a means of letting off
the excessive excitement of the brain; but here gray-headed men
joined in the performance with as much zest as others whose youth
might be an excuse for making the perspiration stream off their bodies
with the exertion.
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