FIJI ISLANDS. 333 



120 I think, the dancers formed a sort of rectangular group, 

 arranging themselves in eight rows, the leader being in the centre 

 of the front row. Once or twice the leader came forward to the 

 chorus, and addressed a few words in a dramatic manner partly 

 to them, exhorting them to do their duty well, partly to the 

 spectators. 



A club dance by boys was one of the performances. In one 

 figure of this the boys, standing in a line with their bodies bent 

 forwards, jerked their hips with a most astonishing facility, first 

 to one side and then to the other. The motion, especially in 

 cases where the boys had a large quantity of tappa projecting 

 behind as a sort of bustle, was most ludicrous, and the audience, 

 instead of crying the oft repeated "Vinaka, vinaka," fairly 

 shouted with laughter. 



A band of women of the district, headed by the Queen of 

 Eewa and her daughter, who were both dressed in bright blue 

 striped prints, marched slowly forwards across the Green to 

 deposit their offerings, singing a chant, descriptive of various 

 incidents from the New Testament, the descriptive part being 

 a solo, whilst the whole band joined in a constantly repeated 

 chorus containing the words Allelujah, Amen. This song was 

 in lieu of a dance. 



The principal interest of the performances, however, lay in 

 the obvious fact that here were to be observed the germs of the 

 drama, of vocal and instrumental music, and of poetry, in almost 

 their most primitive condition in development. In these Fijian 

 dances they are all still intimately connected together, and are 

 seen to arise directly out of one another, having not as yet 

 reached the stage of separation. 



The dance is evidently first invented by the savage, then 

 rhythmical vocal sounds are used by the dancers to accompany 

 it, and simple instruments of percussion are employed to keep 

 time. As the dance becomes gradually more varied and complex, 

 the accompanyists are separated as an orchestra, the actual per- 

 formers joining less and less in the vocal part until, as here, they 

 merely utter a single loud cry or note occasionally during the 



dance. 



The instrumental music of the orchestra remains long sub- 



