234 
DANCES. 
pean mode of dancing. At particular points the 
figures terminate by some simultaneous motion of 
the whole performers, accompanied %y>a deep, gut- 
teral “ Waugh, uttered by all together ; at others 
by the actors closing in a dense circle, and raising 
and pointing their weapons upwards with the same 
exclamation. 
The “ Paritke,” or natives inhabiting the scrub 
north-west of Moorunde, have quite a different form 
of dancing from the river natives. They are painted 
or decorated with feathers in a similar way ; but each 
dancer ties bunches of green boughs round the leg, 
above the knees, whilst the mode of dancing consists 
in stamping with the foot and uttering at each mo- 
tion a deep ventral intonation, the boughs round the 
knees making a loud rustling noise in keeping with 
the time of the music. One person, who directs the 
others in the movements of this dance, holds in his 
hands an instrument in the form of a diamond, made 
of two slight sticks, from two and a half to three feet 
long, crossed and tied in the middle, round this a 
string, made of the hair of the opposum, is pressed 
from corner to corner, and continued successively 
towards the centre until there is only room left for 
the hand to hold the instrument. At each corner is 
appended a bunch of cockatoo feathers. With this 
* This very peculiar sound appears to be common among the 
American Indians, and to he used in a similar manner. — Vide 
Gatlin, vol. 2. p. 136. 
