Journals Of Expeditions Of Discovery Into Central Australia And Overland From Adelaide To King George's Sound In The Years 1840-1: Sent By The Colonists Of South Australia By Eyre, Edward John
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Also the case in New Zealand, with respect to some of the
songs.
- Vide Dieffenbach, vol. 2. p. 57.]
Of these amusements the natives are passionately fond; and when once they
have so far overcome their naturally indolent disposition as to be
induced to engage in them there is no knowing when they will give over.
Dances are sometimes held during the day, but these are of rare
occurrence, and seem to be in some way connected with their ceremonial
observances or superstitions, since rude figures, and lofty branches of
trees, decorated with tufts of feathers, emu plumes, swan's down and red
ochre, occupy a prominent part in the exhibition, although never met with
in the dances by night.
The dances vary a great deal among the different tribes, both as to
figures and music; the painting or decoration of their persons, their use
of weapons, and the participation of the females in them. Throughout the
entire continent, as far as it is known. there are many points of
resemblance in the dances of all the Aborigines, such as the practice of
painting the body with white and red ochre, carrying boughs in their
hands, or tying them round their limbs; adorning the head with feathers
or down, bearing bunches of feathers, tied in tufts in their hands, the
women singing and beating time upon folded skins, the men beating time
upon sticks or some of their smaller weapons, an old man acting as leader
of the band, and giving the time and tune to the others; the dances
representing the actions of animals, the circumstances of the chase, of
war, or of love; and the singular and extraordinary quivering motion of
the thighs when the legs are distended, a peculiarity probably confined
to the natives of the continent of Australia.
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