Beatty—The St. George J or Mummers '| Flays. 305 
many pigs which have ‘falien for that night’s repast.’ The 
scream of the parrots and the mysterious roaring sound were 
made by hidden performers, the latter being produced by blow¬ 
ing strongly into a bamboo trumpet, the mouth of which is 
partially immersed in water. 
“The dead men having come to life again, the novices offer 
their weapons and the bales of native cloth in which they are 
swathed. These are removed to the storehouse, and the 
young men are made to sit down in front of it. The chief 
priest now relaxes the sternness of his demeanor, and becomes 
a remarkably lively old gentleman. Dancing to and from one 
side of the Nang a to the other, he cries in stridulous tones, 
' TJe , cirue , ao, iweil Where are the people of my long a (en¬ 
closure) ? Are they gone to Tongalevu? Are they gone to Tum- 
halevu (the deep sea) V Presently a deep-toned chant is 
heard, and the revivified dead, cleansed and ornamented, come 
from the river with a rhythmical movement timed to their 
solemn chant.” 
They eat and drink, and are purified ceremonially, when 
the rite is at an end. 1 
In some of the ceremonies we may notice the incident of the 
mimic contest, which is much like the incident in the St. 
George play. In the Australian Corrobborees this is a fre¬ 
quent incident, and we shall now illustrate it. 
“The first performance was a war-dance, wherein a variety 
of complicated evolutions and savage antics were gone through, 
accompanied by a brandishing of clubs, spears, boomerangs 
and shields. Suddenly the crowd divided into two parties, 
and after a chorus of deafening yells and fierce exhortations, 
as if for the purpose of adding to their own and each other’s 
excitement, they rushed together in close fight. One division, 
i For an account of the “IvTalu” ceremonies in the Torres Straits, see 
A. C. Haddon, “Head Hunters, Black, White and Brown,” 1901, chap. 4. 
For an account of Brazilian ceremonies, see Karl von den Steinen, 
“Unter den Naturvolkern Zentral-Brasiliens,” 1897, chap. 13. Theo¬ 
dor Waitz, “Anthropologie der Naturvolker” (ed. Gerland, 6 vols., 
1859-1872), is a storehouse of facts. 
3—S. & A. 
