NEW SOUTH WALES. 



199 



the head, while others of less breadth are drawn across the body, 

 to correspond to the ribs. The music consists in beating time on 

 their shields, and singing, and to it the movements of the dancers 

 conform. It must not be supposed that this exhibition is a dance 

 in our sense of the word, nor is it like any thing that we saw in the 

 South Sea Islands. It consists of violent and odd movements of the 

 arms, legs, and body, contortions and violent muscular actions, amount- 

 ing almost to frenzy. The performers appear more like a child's 

 pasteboard supple-jack than any thing human in their movements. 



This action continues for a time, and then the skeletons, for so I 

 may term them, for they truly resemble them, suddenly seem to 

 vanish and reappear. The disappearance is effected by merely turn- 

 ing round, for the figures are painted only in front, and their dusky 

 forms are lost by mingling with the dark background. The trees 

 illuminated by the fire, are brought out with some of the figures in 

 bold relief, while others were indistinct and ghost-like. All concurred 

 to give an air of wildness to the strange scene. As the dance pro- 

 ceeds, the excitement increases, and those who a short time before 

 appeared only half alive, become full of animation, and finally were 

 obliged to stop from exhaustion. 



These corroborys are the occasion of much intercourse among the 

 tribes, as they frequently make visits to each other for the sole pur- 

 pose of carrying a new song for the dance. They have several kinds 

 of these dances, which appear to be their only amusement. In their 

 music they do not sound any of the common chords, and the only 

 accompaniment was a kind of bass, as written below, which was in 

 fact only a very deep-toned grunt, sounded, as ho, ho, ho, very deep in 

 the throat. At the end of each dance they finished with a loud whoo, 

 or screech, an octave above the key-note. 



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