672 



at that time. As it is, however, sung during a previous feast 

 (Mauru amata, see above), there seems to be no doubt that 

 it is a ceremonial song of special importance, and that it points 

 to the great part played by the mango in the feast, though 

 this part, in Mailu at least, seems to be distinctly of the nature 

 of a survival. (^^^ 



There is a characteristic and somewhat wild dance, to the 

 accompaniment of the song and drums, in which they take- 

 long, elastic strides, leaping from one foot to another. At 

 times they bend the knees and body and dance in an almost 

 squatting position, in which position they look rather 

 demoniacal. Again, at times the chiefs get in front of the 

 mango trees, turn round, and dance backwards, looking up 

 to the mangoes — a movement which, to the observer, seems to 

 express a kind of adoration of the plants. 



The song ceases for a short time, and the men dance to 

 the rhythmic beat of the drums. Then the foremost men blow 

 the conch shells and all the others join in a long-drawn 

 O — — o — in tune with the shells, the two sounds blending 

 perfectly. Then the song is resumed. 



Thus, singing and dancing, the men enter the village, 

 where they are met by a group of women, decorated with 

 diadems of white cockatoo feathers, and with necklets of shell 

 discs, in the form of the Bdgi and Samavupa of the east 

 end. ^921 The women dance and wave at the men ceremonially 

 with folded pandanus mats and pieces of native bark cloth (I 



(91) For the benefit of those readers who have never done 

 ethnographical field work, I may add that it is in almost all cases 

 quite impossible to obtain from the natives the direct meaning 

 of, or the reason for, a song or incantation. The ansAver is always, 

 •'Old custom, handed doAvn by our fathers." Again the literal 

 translation of a song is very often impossible. Natives use obsolete 

 words and phrases; some words here and there are translated, 

 and these serve to the ethnologist as the clue to the general mean- 

 ing of the incantation. Compare, for instance, the songs of the 

 Central and Northern Australian aborigines given b.v Spencer and 

 Gillen. The claims of the German missionary Strelilow, who gives 

 full and extremely consistent translations of songs that the 

 originators were unable to translate, must, as far as my own 

 experience goes, be received with some reserve. Natives who have 

 been long under the white man's training, as Strehlow's mission 

 boys undoubtedly were, possess a wonderful ability of adapting 

 the incongruities of traditional custom and belief to the necessi- 

 ties of an untrained, and hence too consistent a, white man.. 

 In Mailu there is the additional reason for allowing for a ce^'tain 

 margin of obscurity and ignorance on the part of the natives, as 

 the Govi dance and the connected ceremonies are undoubtedly 

 introduced from abroad (see below, chap, vi., sec. 1). 



(92) Figured on pi. Ix. in Prof. Seligman's treatise. 



