154 EXPEDITION INTO 



idol they worship. The following- were the words repeated, 

 with occasional transposition, ten thousand times :^ 



O Lllli bukalee, Buuka Baee 



O nwaug a-nee siibookana-sliee, 



Ai biiuka baee — Hibo, lii bo, hi bo bo-sliee. 



Dancing- seiwed in the place of music, and was nothing- 

 more than an accompaniment to the song-, of which the 

 pathos and feeling* were indicated by the contortions of 

 the body, and by the various iig'ures described Avitli the 

 hands, in which they flourished a club of rhinoceros' horn. 

 The feet reg'ulated the time, and imparted the locomotive 

 effect in which they rejoice. At first they were slowly lifted, 

 to descend ag'ain with a sing'le or double stamp ; and the 

 sticks being" g'ently clashed at the same moment, the corres- 

 pondence was both diverting' and striking-. But as the 

 performers warmed upon the exercise, their g-esticulations 

 became more and more diversified, vehement, and energ-etic 

 — leaping-, striding-, vaulting-, and running-, they perpetually 

 crossed each other's orbits, stabbing-, parrying-, thrusting-, 

 advancing-, and retreating-, with so lig-ht a foot, and so rig-id 

 a muscle, that the eye could with difiiculty follow the 

 velocity of their motions ; now darting- to the rig'ht, and 

 then as abruptly recoiling- to the left, they brandished their 

 sticks aloft, increasing- in vehemence by each detour • then 

 vaulting- several feet into the air, leaping-, g-alloping-, and 

 charg-ing-, in pantomimic conflict, they made the g-round 

 resound under their feet, and raised a cloud of dust by the 

 eag-erness and rapidity of the exercise — until, foaming- and 

 frenzied by their tortuous movements, they fairly sank 

 beneath the tempest which they had stirred. To the by- 

 stander this scene conveyed all the reality of the wildest 

 conflict of savag-e life ; the darkness of the nig-ht, with 

 the pecuhar lig-ht shed over the features of the frantic 

 g-roup by the blazing- fire, contributing- g-reatly to heig-hten 



