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INSTITUTE OF SOCIAL ANTHROPOLOGY PUBLICATION NO. 15 



nut hulls tied together and fastened to the ankles 

 of the dancers. There were at least four kinds of 

 flutes. The emini flute was made from two 

 pieces of soft sapling hollowed out and fastened 

 together with wax and string. This flute was 

 about 3 feet long with four finger holes and a 

 separate mouthpiece. The kanagera flute was 

 made like the emini but was shorter and had a 

 different sound. Both the emini and the kanagera 

 were sacred flutes of the shamans and were always 

 kept in the sacred flute house connected to the 

 kadoeti where they were played only at night so as 

 to prevent women from seeing them. If a woman 

 were to see one of these flutes, misfortune would 

 befall her. When the sacred flutes were played 

 there was dancing but no singing. The taddnwa 

 was a bamboo flute made in five different lengths 

 without finger holes and was not sacred. The 

 nokigora was made by fastening four short tubes 

 of bamboo of different lengths together. It was 

 played in pairs, one player answering the other. 

 This flute was not sacred and could be accompanied 

 by singing. In addition to the rattles and flutes, 

 the Bacairi used highly decorated sticks or batons 

 called kadoapuri in some of their dances. 



Besides the flutes and the dances performed to 

 their tunes, the Bacairi had songs and their corre- 

 sponding dances which were not always accom- 

 panied by flute music; for instance, the orlko was 

 a song and a dance performed with the decorated 

 batons which could be performed at any time ; the 

 pahoewdto, another general song and dance which 

 also could be performed at any time ; the yawaisdri, 

 the corn song and dance in which neither the flutes 

 nor batons were used; the mahulawdri, performed 

 during the house building ceremony without batons 

 or flutes; and the poinwdto, sung and danced during 

 the boys' ear piercing ceremony. 



One of the most important ceremonial events 

 of the year was the annual corn dance (anjeint- 

 abienli), which was performed when the corn 

 ripened in the fields. The man who had the 

 largest corn crop was the organizer of the cere- 

 mony. In order to have enough corn, the Bacairi 

 usually planted special fields, the yields of which 

 were used on this occasion. On the day before 

 the corn gathering all the men went on a big 

 hunt in order to have large quantities of meat 

 ready for the feast. Early in the morning of the 

 following day everyone went out to the fields to 



gather the ceremonial corn. Later in the day the 

 women prepared large quantities of corn porridge 

 and roasted ears. 



On the morning of the third day the actual 

 ceremony began in front of the kadoeti. The 

 organizer of the dance distributed roasted ears or 

 pieces of ears to all the villagers, children included. 

 Then at a signal from the leader, the villagers 

 began throwing the roasted corn in all directions 

 and at one another. After the roasted corn was 

 disposed of, the people ate the corn porridge and 

 meat prepared on the preceding day. They then 

 washed themselves in the river and put on their 

 paint and ornaments. When the villagers had 

 again gathered before the kadoeti the dance leader 

 took a piece of corn husk and went from man 

 to man asking for a song leader. The man who 

 took the offered corn husk then began the 

 yawaisdri, or song in praise of corn. Little by 

 little the others joined in the singing and eventu- 

 ally began to dance. The words of the song told 

 how corn came to the Bacairi and how it made the 

 people strong and healthy. 



The ransegero, or ear-piercing ceremony, was 

 performed just before a boy went into puberty 

 seclusion. It was customary for men who had 

 sons of about the same age to cooperate in getting 

 large quantities of food ready for the feast. After 

 the feast was over the ears of the boys were pierced 

 and the poinwdto song was sung. When boys and < 

 girls came out of seclusion there was another 

 ceremony during which all the songs and dances 

 were performed with the exception of the sacred 

 flute tunes. 



The mahulawdri was performed during coopera- 

 tive house building in which the whole village par- 

 ticipated. While the women prepared food and 

 some men were putting up the frame, a certain 

 number of men went in search of palm fronds for 

 thatching. When these men returned with the palm 

 fronds they danced and sang before the new 

 house with their loads on their backs and in full 

 ceremonial regalia. 



The custom of distributing cotton by a woman 

 with a good cotton crop and having other women 

 weave hammocks for her has already been men- 

 tioned. When the women had completed their 

 weaving and returned the hammocks to the donor 

 of the cotton, she gave a feast during which the 

 women sang and danced the yamaikuma. This 



