A DAxNCE 87 



still remained in the centre of the floor. Every one still on 

 his legs was very hilarious ; we were shown large jars which 

 last evening were full of toddy. Lying about the sides of the 

 floor people were sleeping, some from sheer weariness, some 

 from intoxication. All were gaily dressed ; bright cottons hung 

 from the shoulders like a cloak, round the neck were strings of 

 beads and collars of frilled banana-leaf, now faded ; many 

 wore ear-stretchers of red and white cotton made into rosettes, 

 and the men were crowned with chaplets of twisted print : we 

 saw several handsome belts, made of silver wire and rupees 

 (almost the only use to which money is put), and some wore 

 armlets of silver not unlike those brass-wire ornaments affected 

 by Dyak women. 



"In dancing, the people — men, women, and children — form a 

 circle, or portion of a circle, round the spoons, and, with arms 

 intertwined and hands on each others' shoulders, move slowly 

 towards the right, with measured step, to the accompaniment 

 of general chanting — to me it sounded like ' ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, 

 ah, ah,' ad infinitum, only varied in tone and rhythm.* The 

 regularity of the movement is broken at intervals by a step or 

 two in the opposite direction, or a pause with a pirouette on 

 one leg, and now and then a heavy stamp on the floor. One 

 old woman, who danced most perseveringly, was so intoxicated, 

 that, whenever her neighbours took away the support of their 

 arms, she fell over, and was too helpless to rise unaided. 



" Seated on boxes we watched the performance, and the doctor, 



* The Whole of the Nicobarese Dance Music. 



.^^. Da Capo. 



i 



H ) 4 ! 



^ 



Fontana, Asiatic Researches, vol. iii. 



It is extraordinary that people who are comparatively so far removed 

 from savagedom, and so fond of dancing and singing, should have no 

 musical instruments. They are acquainted with a kind of flute used by 

 the Burmese, and a "guitar," but can show nothing of their own invention. 

 Even the Andamanese, absolute savages as they are, possess a species of 

 sounding-board, on which they beat time to their songs. 



