NEW HEBRIDES 



39 



men being placed iu front, the smaller men and boys behind. The dancers pipe for 

 themselves, and the dancing consists in wriggling the body, and, bent double, swaying the 

 head, arms, and legs, and marking time with the feet. Strings of nutshells bound on their 

 ankles rattle in rhythm with their movements. The leaders play a melody on panpipes, to 

 which less skilled musicians add an accompaniment with bamboo trumpets. The music 

 changes with the figures of the dance, marking the time and the change of step. The 

 general effect is good the result of careful rehearsing. The chief who owns the party, like 

 an enterprising manager, spares no expense to make the performance a success. His dancers 

 are gaily decked in white cockatoos' feathers and gaudy waist-cloths, necklaces, and other 

 ornaments. Formerly, when the people were more under the influences of their sorcerers 

 (tindalos), they went through a solemn function or ceremony, iu order to place the dancers 

 under the protection of some powerful tindalo whose influence (or spirit) should make their 

 movements agile and their music inspiring. The man who presided over this ceremony was 

 highly paid for his services. A party of dancers and the mixed multitude attending them, 

 sometimes numbering more than 350 in all, and occupying a fleet of thirty canoes, make a 

 round of visits lasting three months. Several performances are given at each place, after 

 which the spectators supply them with food, while the chief pays their wages. 



These dancing parties, according to the Eev. Alfred Penny, are quite harmless, and in 

 fact have been used for the spread of Christianity. He says: "At first the Christians held 

 aloof because of the tindalo influence upon the daucers, and because they would have to 

 give up school and prayers during the tour. But when their numbers came to be consider- 

 able, the idea occurred to some of us to let a Christian party go, attended by a teacher as 

 chaplain, if the chief would consent to forgo the tindalo part of the business. On several 

 occasions this has been done. A large dancing party started three years ago from Gaeta 

 with a contingent of fifty Christians, and went the round of Florida Island. Each night and 

 morning those men met together for 

 prayers; and though at first they had to 

 encounter ridicule, the ridicule in time 

 gave way before their pertinacity." 



NEW HEBEIDES. 



THE New Hebrides are a group of vol- 

 canic islands which received their present 

 name from Captain Cook, who visited 

 them in 1774. They have a total area of 

 5,000 square miles, with a population of 

 70,000, governed at present by a mixed 

 commission of officers of the British and 

 French warships in the Pacific. Although 

 the climate is ill-suited for Europeans, 

 missionary work has been carried on with 

 unremitting zeal. Erromanga, the largest 

 of the southern group, where the natives 

 were at first extremely hostile, and where 

 five missionaries have been murdered, now 

 contains over 1,000 Christians. In the 

 five southern islands there are more than 

 forty schools, thanks to the labours of 

 the Presbyterian Church. In the northern 

 group, consisting of thirty-five islands, 

 the natives are more friendly than in the 



Photo by Wm. 



[Philadelphia. 



A TREE-HOUSE OF OCEANIA. 



