These Dances Consist Of
Short Parts, Or Acts, Accompanied With Frequent Vociferations, And A Kind
Of Hissing, Or Whizzing Noise.
They commonly end with a loud rapid shout,
and after a short respite are renewed.
While the dance lasts, one of them
(usually a person of note and estimation) beats time with a stick on a
wooden instrument held in the left hand, accompanying the music with his
voice; and the dancers sometimes sing in concert.
I have already mentioned that white is the colour appropriated to the
dance, but the style of painting is left to every one's fancy. Some are
streaked with waving lines from head to foot; others marked by broad
cross-bars, on the breast, back, and thighs, or encircled with spiral
lines, or regularly striped like a zebra. Of these ornaments, the face
never wants its share, and it is hard to conceive any thing in the shape
of humanity more hideous and terrific than they appear to a stranger - seen,
perhaps, through the livid gleam of a fire, the eyes surrounded by large
white circles, in contrast with the black ground, the hair stuck full
of pieces of bone and in the hand a grasped club, which they occasionally
brandish with the greatest fierceness and agility. Some dances are
performed by men only, some by women only, and in others the sexes mingle.
In one of them I have seen the men drop on their hands and knees and kiss
the earth with the greatest fervor, between the kisses looking up to
Heaven.
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