3 66 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



spontaneous expressions of applause and loyalty, gradually pass 

 into ceremonial observances used for purposes of propitiation. It 

 becomes the policy to please the ruler by repetitions of these 

 songs describing his great deeds, and of the dances expressive of 

 joy at his presence. Describing the Marutse, Holub says : 



" All the musicians [of the royal band] were obliged to be singers as welL 

 having to screech out the king's praises between the intervals in the music, 

 or to a muffled accompaniment of their instruments." 



So, Schweinfurth tells us that at the court of king Munza, the 

 Monbutto ruler, there were professional musicians, ballad-singers, 

 and dancers, whose leading function was to glorify and please the 

 king. And in Dahomy, according to Burton, " the bards are of 

 both sexes, and the women dwell in the palaces . . . the king 

 keeps a whole troop of these laureates." Official praises of this 

 kind are carried on by attendants not only of the king but of sub- 

 ordinate rulers. In processions in Ashantee, "each noble is at- 

 tended by his flatterers, who proclaim, in boisterous songs, the 

 'strong names' of their master;" and on the Gold Coast, "every 

 chief has a horn-blower, and a special air of his own." Similarly 

 we learn from Park that among the Mandingos there are minstrels 

 who " sing extempore songs in honor of their chief men, or any 

 other persons who are willing to pay them : " showing us an un- 

 obtrusive divergence from the original function. Winterbottom 

 indicates a like divergence. 



" Among the Foolas there is a set of people called singing men, who, 

 like tbe ancient bards, travel about the country singing the praises of those 

 who choose to purchase renown." 



Passing beyond Africa we read that in Madagascar "the sov- 

 ereign has a large band of female singers, who attend in the 

 courtyard, and who accompany their monarch whenever he takes 

 an excursion." Raffles, too, says that in Java there are three 

 classes of dancing- girls, who perform in public : 1. The concubines 

 of the sovereign and of the hereditary prince. These are the most 

 skillful. 2. The concubines of the nobles. 3. The common danc- 

 ing girls of the country. In these cases we are shown that while 

 saltatory and vocal forms of glorification, at first occasional and 

 spontaneous, have become regular and ceremonial; and while 

 those who perform them, no longer the people at large, have be- 

 come a specialized class ; two further changes have taken place. 

 Instead of being both singers and dancers, as the primitive cele- 

 brants were, these permanent officials have become differentiated 

 into the two classes, singers and dancers ; and, if not of the singers, 

 yet of the dancers we may remark that their performances, ceas- 

 ing to be expressions of welcome and joy before the ruler, have 

 grown into displays of agility and grace, and are gone through 



