DANCER AND MUSICIAN. 203 



movements of a regiment of modern soldiers. Clearly it is 

 not from these exercises that professional dancing origi 

 nates. 



671. That professional dancing, singing, and instru 

 mental music originate in the way above indicated, is im 

 plied by a familiar passage in the Bible. We are told that 

 when David, as general of the Israelites, &quot; was returned 

 from the slaughter of the Philistine &quot; 



a 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. &quot; (1 Sam., 

 xviii, 6, 7.) 



Here the primitive reception of a conquering chief by shouts 

 and leaps, which, along with semi-civilization, had devel 

 oped into partially definite and rhythmical form, vocal and 

 saltatory, was 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 occa 

 sion, under different circumstances, predominantly sacred. 

 When, led by Moses, the Israelites had passed the Ked Sea, 

 the song of Miriam, followed by the women &quot; with timbrels 

 and with dances &quot; exhorting them &quot; sing ye to the Lord, 

 for he hath triumphed gloriously,&quot; shows us the same kind 

 of observance towards a leader (a &quot; man of war,&quot; as the He 

 brew god is called) who was no longer visible, but was sup 

 posed 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 con 

 queror, at first spontaneous expressions of applause and loy 

 alty, 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 



