PROFESSIONAL INSTITUTIONS. 365 



terpretation, it may be well to remark that negative evidence 

 is furnished by those savages who have no permanent chiefs 

 or rudimentary kings; for among them these incipient profes- 

 sional actions are scarcely to be traced. They do indeed show 

 us certain rude dances with noisy accompaniments ; but these are 

 representations of war and the chase. Though the deeds of cele- 

 brated warriors may occasionally be simulated in ways implying 

 laudation of them, there do not commonly arise at this stage the 

 laudations constituted by joyous gesticulations and triumphant 

 songs in face of a conqueror. At later stages ceremonies of this 

 primitive kind develop into organized exercises performed by 

 masses of warriors. Thus among the Kaffirs the war-dances con- 

 stitute the most important part of their training, and they engage 

 in these frequently ; and it is said that the movements in the grand 

 dances of the Zulus resemble military evolutions. So, too, Thom- 

 son writes that the war-dance of the New Zealanders approximated 

 in precision to the movements of a regiment of European soldiers. 

 Clearly it is not from these exercises that professional dancing 

 originates. 



That professional dancing, singing, and instrumental music 

 originate in the way above indicated, is implied by a familiar 

 passage in the Bible. We are told that when David, as general of 

 the Israelites, " was returned from the slaughter of the Philis- 

 tines " 



" The women came out of all cities of Israel singing and dancing to meet 

 king Saul with tabrets, with joy, and with instruments of music; and the 

 women answered one another as they played, and said 'Saul hath slain his 

 thousands and David his ten thousands''' (I Sam., xviii, 6, 7). 



Here the primitive reception of a conquering chief by shouts and 

 leaps, which has, along with semi-civilization, developed into more 

 definite and rhythmical form, vocal and saltatory, is accorded both 

 to a reigning conqueror and to a conqueror subordinate to him. 

 But while on this occasion the ceremony was entirely secular, it 

 was, on another occasion, under different circumstances, predomi- 

 nantly sacred. When, led by Moses, the Israelites had passed the 

 Red Sea, the song of Miriam, followed by the women " with tim- 

 brels and with dances " exhorting them " sing ye to the Lord, for 

 he hath triumphed gloriously," shows us the same kind of ob- 

 servance toward a leader (a " man of war," as the Hebrew god 

 is called) who is no longer visible, but is supposed to guide his 

 people and occasionally to give advice in battle. That is, we see 

 religious dancing and singing and praise having the same form 

 whether the object of them is or is not present to sight. 



Usages which we find in existing semi-civilized societies, justify 

 the conclusion that ovations to a returning conqueror, at first 



