30 DIVERSIONS OF A NATURALIST 



danced no more. These wild men die out when civilized 

 man comes near them. It appears that they really spend 

 most of their time in dancing when not looking for food 

 or chipping stone implements, and that their dances are 

 essentially plays (like those of little children in Europe), 

 the acting of traditional stories relating the history of 

 their venerated animal " totem," which often last - for 

 three weeks at a time ! Whilst dancing and gesticu- 

 lating they are chanting and singing without cessation, 

 often repeating the same words * over and over again. 

 Here, indeed, we have the primitive human art, the 

 emotional expression from which, in more advanced 

 races, music, drama, dancing, and decorative handicraft 

 have developed as separate " arts." 



The most remarkable and impressive result was 

 obtained when Professor Baldwin Spencer turned on 

 his phonograph records whilst the wild men danced 

 in the film picture. Then we heard the actual voices of 

 these survivors of prehistoric days — shouting at us in 

 weird cadences, imitating the cry of birds, and accom- 

 panied by the booming of the bull-roarer (a piece of 

 wood attached to a string, and swung rapidly round by 

 the performer). A defect, and at the same time a 

 special merit, of the cinema show of the present day is 

 the deadly silence of both the performers and the 

 spectators. Screams and oaths are delivered in silence ; 

 pistols are fired without a sound. One can concentrate 

 one's observation on the facial expression and move- 

 ments of the actors with undivided attention and with 

 no fear of startling detonations. And very bad they 

 almost invariably are, except in films made by the great 

 French producers. On the other hand, I was astonished 

 at the intensity of the impression produced by hearing 

 the actual voices of those Australian wild men as they 



