DANCES. 143 



a young lad, who accompanied me, amused himself with some rude 

 music by holding in front of his lips, as he hummed a native air, a 

 thick leaf in which he had made a hole about half an inch wide, 

 leaving the thin transparent epidermis intact on one side ; the vib- 

 ration of this thin membrane gave a peculiar twang to his voice. 



The drum in common use in the different islands we visited was 

 made of a portion of the trunk of a tree, 8 to 10 feet long, hollowed 

 out in its interior and possessing a slit in the middle. It is placed 

 lengthways on the ground, and is struck by two short sticks. 

 Similar drums are employed by the inhabitants of the New 

 Hebrides^ and the Admiralty Islands.^ This pattern may therefore 

 be described as the Melanesian drum. A kind of sounding-board, 

 placed in a i)it in the ground and struck by the feet of the dancers, 

 is described in my account of the dances of these islanders (vide 

 page 144). 



As conches, the two large shells, Triton and Cassis are commonl}'- 

 used. For this purpose, a hole is pierced for the lips on the side of 

 the spire. 



Dancing is performed on very different occasions in these islands. 

 Besides the war, funeral, and festal dances, there are others which 

 partake of a lascivious character both in the words of the accom- 

 panying chant and in the movements of the hands and body. 

 Whilst visiting the small island of Santa Catalina, I saw one of these 

 dances performed by young girls fiora 10 to 1-i years of age. An 

 explanation of their reluctance to commence, which at first from my 

 ignorance of what was to follow I was at a loss to understand, soon 

 utfered itself in the character of the dance, and evidently arose from 

 a natural sense of modesty that appeared strange when associated 

 with their subsequent performance. There are, however, other 

 dances, purely sportive in their nature. Of such a kind were some 

 which were performed for my benefit at the village of Gaeta in the 

 Florida Islavids. About twenty lads, having formed a ring around 

 a group of thoir companions squatting in the centre, began to walk 

 slowly round, tapping the ground with their left feet at every other 

 step, and keeping time with a dismal drone chanted by the central 

 group of boys. Every now and then the bo3's of the ring bent for- 

 ward on one knee towards those in the middle, while at the same 



^ " A year in the New Hebrides " by F. A Campbell, p. 108. The drums are placed erect 

 in the earth. 



"-* Mosely's "Notes by a Naturalist on the ' Challenger,'" p. 471. 



