Their Ardent Fearless Character, Seeks Fair
And Open Combat Only.
But enmity has its moments of pause.
Then they assemble to sing and dance.
We always found their songs disagreeable from their monotony. They are
numerous, and vary both in measure and time. They have songs of war,
of hunting, of fishing, for the rise and set of the sun, for rain,
for thunder and for many other occasions. One of these songs, which may
be termed a speaking pantomime, recites the courtship between the sexes
and is accompanied with acting highly expressive. I once heard and saw
Nanbaree and Abaroo perform it. After a few preparatory motions she
gently sunk on the ground, as if in a fainting fit. Nanbaree applying his
mouth to her ear, began to whisper in it, and baring her bosom, breathed
on it several times. At length, the period of the swoon having expired,
with returning animation she gradually raised herself. She now began
to relate what she had seen in her vision, mentioning several of her
countrymen by name, whom we knew to be dead; mixed with other strange
incoherent matter, equally new and inexplicable, though all tending to one
leading point - the sacrifice of her charms to her lover.
At their dances I have often been present; but I confess myself unable
to convey in description an accurate account of them. Like their songs,
they are conceived to represent the progress of the passions and the
occupations of life. Full of seeming confusion, yet regular and systematic,
their wild gesticulations, and frantic distortions of body are calculated
rather to terrify, than delight, a spectator.
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