74 GEORGE D-S-DUNBAR ON 



The dance that seemed to be most purely religious in character as being, so it was 

 gathered, an example of the corybantic exorcism used in the visitation of the sick, 1 

 was the dance given by the Panggi mivii girl i at Rotung. She had three companions 

 with her who acted as chorus. In dancing she kept her knees and feet together and 

 waved her hands, but not violently. The dance took place between the verses of an 

 invocation to " Roi-kang and Kamin spirits of the Delu 3 river." The refrain, 

 taken up by the chorus, also invoked these spirits, and was distinctly musical, parts 

 being taken by the singers. 



A second dance was witnessed in a Pasi Minyong village I was unable to find 

 out the ceremony with which it is generally associated, for it was being performed on 

 this occasion in the hopes of averting the whip of calamity that an uneasy conscience 

 had reason to apprehend. The dance took place at night, in the fitful light of 

 torches and a bon-fire. A miru jingling bells and holding a sword postured in the 

 centre. Round the miru in a circle danced the chorus of about forty girls. Each 

 girl held her arms stretched out straight from the shoulder, gripping her right-hand 

 neighbour's left arm. The circle moved round from left, to right. The way in 

 which rythm and time were kept was most effective and the step used by the entire 

 chorus was not unlike one of the steps of a reel. The miru chanted four invocations, 

 the recitative and the chorus in each case being different. When one of the chorus 

 tired she fell back into the crowd, and another girl stepped at once into her place. 



Captain Bethell has kindly furnished me with the following account of a Chuli- 

 kata Mishmi dance. This dance was, so he tells me, conducted by the Gam and not 

 by the igu } but as the same rythm was heard in quite another part of the country in 

 the observance of funeral rites, this dance may certainly be regarded as semi-religious 

 in character. The headman of the village wore a tiara of shells, about four inches 

 broad, the shells being sewn on in vertical lines; he also wore a magnificent cross- 

 belt of boar's tushes, all picked specimens, sewn on very close together. At his but- 

 tocks he wore a Tibetan drum about 8 inches long on which were fastened tiny 

 rattles and small brass plates. He carried another drum in his left hand and a short 

 length of bamboo in his right hand. Two men danced with him, one carried a " tom- 

 tom " and the other a Tibetan drum. The dance took place by a bon-fire round 

 which the rest of the village formed a wide circle. The performance began by the 

 Gam singing two verses of a song, the chorus repeatingthe last two lines. Unlike the 

 ringing and rather plaintive air sung by the Abors at Balek, the Mishmi song seems 

 to have been harsh and unmelodious, but full of rythm. This went on for about a 

 quarter of an hour, then, without any preconcerted signal, the three performers broke 

 into a dance that went on incessantly for about an hour and a half. First, all three 

 in line, dancing and backwards and forwards and then in procession in front of the 

 fire. A slight change of rythm was noticed during the progress of the dance which 

 was throughout conducted with a bent knee, the performers prancing and springing in 

 time to the music ; the feet were not kept together. It would accordingly appear that 



1 See page 71. 2 See page 68. 3 Brahmaputra. 



