218 PROFESSIONAL INSTITUTIONS. 



living ruler, and afterwards elaborated in the supposed 

 presence of the apotheosized ruler, are, in the last case, 

 sometimes accompanied by mimetic representations of his 

 achievements. Among children, everywhere much given 

 to dramatizing the doings of adults, we may see that some 

 one of a group, assuming the character of a personage heard 

 about or read about, imitates his actions, especially of a de 

 structive kind; and naturally therefore, in days when feel 

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

 habit of giving form to the deeds of the hero they celebrated. 

 The orator or poet joined with his speech or song the appro 

 priate actions, or else these were simultaneously given by 

 some other celebrant. And then, when further develop 

 ments brought representations 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 civil 

 ized races. 



677. 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 &quot; 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 : &quot; the encouragement being doubtless, in large meas 

 ure, eulogy of the chief s past deeds and assertions of his 

 coming prowess. So is it among the !N&quot;ew Caledonians. 



In Tanna &quot; every village has its orators. In public harangues these 

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

 the circumference into the centre of the marum [forumj, laying off 

 their sentences at the same time with the flourish of a club:&quot; [a 

 dramatic accompaniment.] 



