| Share page | Visit Us On FB |
|
MUSIC OF SAVAGE NATIONS. 249
and stamping their feet in exact time to the rhythm of the song, and the beat of the drum.
Sometimes several hundred men are engaged in the dance, while the musicians are twenty or thirty in number. The scene at one of these dances is very picturesque, but it wants the furious energy, which gives such fiery animation to the war-dance of the ~New Zealanders; the movements, though correct in point of time, being comparatively dull and heavy. In order to enliven it a little more, a professional buffoon is usually introduced upon the scene, who performs sundry grotesque movements, and is usually applauded for his exertions. Music and dancing are always used at the celebration of a marriage.* Mr. Seeman in a recent workf says of the entertainment called Kalau Here, that, " with its high poles, streamers, evergreens, [these cannibals are very tasty in their personal adornments, wreaths of flowers, evergreens, etc., being much used], masquerading, trumpet shells, chants, and other wild music, is the nearest approach to dramatic representation, the Fijians seem to have made, and it is with them, what private theatricals are with us. Court fools, in many instances hunchbacks, are attached to the chief's establishment."
The music of the remaining races of Oceanica, doe 8 not differ very materially from the above-described forms. Many of the instruments found Sft use among the Malays, have had their origin in
• Wood's Nat. History of Man, t. 1, p. 285.
t An account of a Government mission to the Fiji Islands, p. 116. |
||