116 REV. FR. J. HOFFMANN, S.J. 



So that the form of the stanza as such rests on and is conditioned by the manner in 

 which it is sung. 



What is deserving of notice is the adroit way in which they make use of this pecu- 

 liar structure of their stanza for purely poetic purposes, quite independent of both 

 song and dance. The chief of these are : the presentation of vivid contrasts, the 

 widening and generalization of ideas in a concrete, picturesque manner and the deve- 

 lopment of their similes into details, both poetic and exhaustive without being over- 

 loaded. 



It may, I think, be claimed for these songs that they frequently depict graphically, 

 that their conception is sometimes really highly poetical. 



On the other hand, however, they are devoid of one feature which is essential to 

 that kind of poetry which we consider as the highest. They only sing of feelings and 

 emotions that are shared in and experienced by every normally constituted human 

 individual in certain circumstances. We find in them nowhere a personality 

 above the average, nowhere a character of overwhelming power for either good 

 or evil or of extraordinary moral beauty. Nowhere do they reveal to us the 

 emotions and struggles of those masterminds and superior natures who live 

 as it were in a world of their own creation. Heroes, such as Homer, Sophocles or 

 Shakespeare depict, are absolute strangers to the world of which these songs 

 are echoes. Nor has that world any room for such characters. Even the figure 

 of the typical king is wanting in it. If here and there the rajah is mentioned, he comes 

 in more as a mere occasional obj ect of curiosity than as a human factor who influenced 

 that world in any way. Nor do we find an allusion, much less an exposition, of any 

 definite religious system. The Karam songs, it is true, here and there attempt the 

 inculcation of a certain philosophy. But then these are evidently alien and they are 

 so uncongenial to the Munda taste that they are called hambal durangko, difficult 

 or heavy songs. 



Of the genuine Mundari songs it may be said therefore that they do, in their own 

 way, reveal to us a stage of civilization in which the individual disappears in the com- 

 munity ; a stage of culture which is entirely identified with the communal system 

 in its original form. This system rests entirely on a mixture of general ethical principles 

 and characteristically racial customs and traditions. These are the unwritten laws 

 framed to be the safeguards of that system. As such they are considered so sacred 

 and all-important that the individual may never step beyond them without being held 

 guilty of endangering the community itself. 



So much appears evident from even a cursory perusal of the songs. A more 

 attentive consideration or study would seem to justify the conclusion that they are 

 directly intended for the purpose of inculcating in the simplest, and perhaps the best 

 and only way at the disposal of such a civilization, the social and moral customs of the 

 community and the race. They do no doubt bear abundant traces of being spontane- 

 ous effusions of a poetic conception of life. But it is natural that among the many 

 songs which welled up spontaneously, the vast majority should depict life as it stands 

 in the frame of the peculiar racial customs and as moulded by the communal system ; 



