Primitive Games. 291 



used, indeed it is perhaps but a figure of the genuir.e 

 macquari dance, is as follows. On the ground in the 

 centre of the dancing place lies a fiat square board, of 

 perhaps two feet square. Two old women, or an old 

 man and a woman, rarely two young persons, squat oppo- 

 site to each other with this board between them. Each 

 is provided with a rough wooden figure of a man, called 

 ivarrau, which word as thus used by the Arawaks 

 signifies " barbarian," i.e , a person not an Arawak, or 

 sometimes in place of this warrau each has a bundle of a 

 few straight sticks from two to three feet long. Whichever 

 instrument is used, it is beaten by each player on the board 

 to a sort of rough tune and with an accompaniment of 

 rhythmic chanting.* The words of this chant, as I am 

 assured, are now unintelligible nonsense ; frequent refer- 

 ence is, however, evidently made to the oarana, or labba- 

 In a circle outside these beaters of time stand a few, 

 apparently rarely more than four or six, of the young men. 

 Each of these is provided with his macquari whip, which 

 he holds by its two extreme ends, his arms being thus 

 outstretched to their full span. The extreme end of the 

 lash, held in the left hand, is pointed toward the centre 

 of the circle and is held so as almost to touch the ground ; 

 the opposite end, held in the right hand, is held as high 

 as may be from the ground. Thus the bodies of the 

 circle of dancers are all inclined inward, the lashes of 



* In Nature, for September 5th, 1889, it is stated that the Mincopies 

 have but one musical instrument, which consists " merely of a hard- 

 wood board, of special shape, which is used for sounding a rhythmical 

 time for dancing. It is used only as a musical instrument, and so illus- 

 trates a step in advance of the Australian, who taps with a stick upon 

 his 'casting board' for the same purpose, without employing a separate 

 instrument." 



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