666 



on the part of the master of the feast. He, and perhaps two 

 or three other men, who act as his associates, abstain from 

 boiled food, fish, and fresh water, eating only roasted food and 

 drinking the fluid of roasted green coconut. The same holds 

 good with reference to the Tselo dance, which seems, however, 

 to be of more recent introduction and less often performed 

 than the two just mentioned. 



Practically at all the feasts the women perform their own 

 dance — the Damorea — whatever others there may be. All the 

 women who are to take part in the performance are required 

 to observe the same taboos as the master and his assistants ; 

 there is also the curious observance previously mentioned (chap, 

 iii., sec. 3) — viz., the drinking of salt water by all those men 

 and women who observe the taboos. 



The name for the taboo, and for the tabooed people, is, in 

 the case of Eaiia, Kohioi, Tselo, and Damorea , Gahnriahu, 

 which corresponds to (Jdini in the case of the Govi. But the 

 fasting does not begin with any feast, as is the case in Uclini; 

 the Gahngdhu people have a good drink of salt water after the 

 sago is brought home and the houses have been decorated 

 with the big sago sausages, and henceforward they observe the 

 taboo. (87) 



Again, when the Bcira is danced there is no taboo what- 

 soever, no preliminary feasts, no observances of a magico- 

 religious character. I have reason to believe that this dance 

 has been introduced comparatively recently from the west ; 

 it originates from Kere'punu, and from other tribes round 

 Hood Bay, and has made its way, in recent times, eastwards as 

 far as Mailu and westwards to the Sinaiu/holo, where I had the 

 pleasure of meeting its pioneer and introducer into the tribe, 

 the Motu and Koifa. It is a lively and varied dance, accom- 

 panied by extremely poor and uninteresting music, and, in 

 spite of its apparent variety, it is to the European critic both 

 decidedly monotonous and greatly inferior to the other dances. 

 But it is at present immensely popular with the natives, being 

 much preferred to any other dance ; in fact, one may say that 

 it is the fashion in Papua nowadays. 



Changes in Vilh/r/e Life vhen the Feast approaches. — 

 Whatever dance is performed, and whatever may be the 

 differences in the preliminary stages of the feast, they are in 

 all cases accompanied by an immediate and general quickening 



(B7) All these dances have been introduced from the east — the 

 more sacred ones from the inland tribes of Orangerie Bay and 

 Mullins Harbour, the less sacred (Tselo and Damorea) from the 

 coastal Southern Massim. For the description and general char- 

 acteristics of these dances, as well as of the others, see next 

 chapter, sec. 1. 



