THE PHILIPPINE ISLANDS. 



MORO JEW S-HARP, 

 CUT OUT OF A 

 SINGLE PIECE 



OF BAMBOO. 



The officers of a Spanish man-of-war in the 

 port of Zamboanga at the time of our visit, 

 hospitably gave us an entertainment on shore, 

 and got the Moros to dance for our amuse- 

 ment. Two men danced with spears and 

 shields, in imitation of a combat, in which the 

 utmost rage was simulated on both sides ; the 

 teeth were clenched and exposed, the head 

 jerked forward, and the eyes starting as they 

 advanced to the attack. The dance of the 

 women was like that described as performed 

 by the Ke Islanders. The body was kept 

 nearly rigid, and turned round slowly or moved 

 a short distance from side to side by motion 

 of the feet alone. The feet were kept close 

 together, and side by side, and moved parallel 

 to one another with a shuffling motion. 



The principal display in the dancing con- 

 sisted in the very slow and gradual movement 

 of the arms, wrists, and hands. One arm was 

 maintained directed forwards and somewhat 

 upwards, the other at about the same angle 

 downwards, and the position of the two was at 

 intervals gradually reversed; the hands were 

 turned slowly round upon the wrists, and often 

 the dancing consisted for some interval merely 

 in the graceful pose of the body, and this 

 movement of the hands. 



The main point in the dancing seemed to 

 be that all the motions should follow and pass 

 one into the other with perfect gradation in 

 time, and without any jerk or quickening. 

 The thumbs were always maintained extended 

 at right angles to the palms of the hands, as 

 at the Ke Islands. 



A young boy danced a somewhat similar 

 dance to that of the girls. During his per- 

 formance, he at one time put forward one leg 

 and curved the sole of his foot so that only 

 the toe and heel touched the floor, and turned 

 round with the foot in that position. At 

 another time he shuffled along slowly with the 

 heel of one foot in the hollow of the other. 



I obtained from a Moro boy a Jew's-harp 

 made of bamboo, on which he was playing. 

 The instrument is most ingeniously cut out 



