434 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



may see that some one of a group, assuming the character of a 

 personage heard about or read about, imitates his actions, espe- 

 cially of a destructive kind ; and naturally therefore, in days when 

 feelings were less restrained than now, adults fell into the same 

 habit of representing the deeds of the hero they celebrated. The 

 orator or poet joined with his speech or song the appropriate ac- 

 tions, or else these were simultaneously given by some other cele- 

 brant. And then, when further developments brought represen- 

 tations of more complex incidents, in which the victories of the 

 hero and his companions over enemies were shown, the leading 

 actor, having to direct the doings of subordinates, became a 

 dramatist. 



From this sketch of incipient stages based on established facts, 

 but partly hypothetical, let us pass to the justifying evidence, 

 supplied by uncivilized races and by early civilized races. 



If we take first the usages of peoples among whom the musical 

 faculty is not much developed we meet with the lauding official in 

 his simplest form the orator. Says Erskine of the Fijians, each 

 tribe has its " orator, to make orations on occasions of ceremony, 

 or to assist the priest and chief in exciting the courage of the 

 people before going to battle " : the encouragement being doubt- 

 less in large measure eulogy of the chief's past deeds and asser- 

 tions of his coming prowess. So is it among the New Cale- 

 donians. 



In Tanna "every village has its orators. In public harangues these 

 men chant their speeches, and walk about in peripatetic fashion, from the 

 circumference into the center of the marum [forum], laying off their sen- 

 tences at the same time with the nourish of a club'' : [a dramatic accom- 

 paniment.] 



And, according to Ellis, the Tahitians furnish like facts. Of 

 their " orators of battle " he says 



" The principal object of these Rautis was, to animate the troops by re- 

 counting the deeds of their forefathers, the fame of their tribe or island, the 

 martial powers of their favoring gods, 1 ' etc. 



The Negro races have commonly large endowments of musical 

 faculty. Among them, as we have seen, laudatory orations as- 

 sume a musical form ; and, in doing so, necessarily become meas- 

 ured. For while spoken utterances may be, and usually are, 

 irregular utterances which, being musical, include the element of 

 time, are thereby in some degree regularized. On reading that 

 among the Marutse, those who " screech out the king's praises " 

 do so to a muffled accompaniment of their instruments," we must 

 infer that, as the sounds of their instruments must have some 

 rhythmical order, so too must their words. Similarly the Mon- 

 butto ballad- singers, whose function it is to glorify the king, must 

 fall into versified expression of their eulogies. The " troop of 



