This dance is also performed by one person and in a similar manner
as the potato dance. A piece of cloth tied to a pole serves as a
nest of bees. The performer dances around the circle several times;
presently he spies the nest and approaches slowly, shading his eyes
for a better view. Having satisfied himself that he has really made
a find, he lights a smudge, goes through the motion of climbing the
tree, and in holding the smudge under the nest he is stung several
times and has to retreat. This is repeated until all the bees are
smoked out and the honey is gathered. Then comes a feast in which,
drunk with honey, he becomes hilarious.
The Torture Dance
This dance, which commemorates the capture of an enemy, is performed
in much the same manner as the "talbun" except that there is no song
connected with it. The captive is bound to a stake in the center and
a dozen men circle slowly around him, in the same manner as already
described, one hand over the mouth and uttering long-drawn notes. The
movement becomes faster and faster until it consists wholly of frenzied
leaps, and the performers, worked up to the proper pitch draw their
bolos, close in on their victim, and slash him to pieces.
When executed at night in the light of a bonfire this dance is most
grotesque and terrible. The naked black bodies, gleaming in the fire,
the blood-curdling yells, and the demoniacal figures of the howling,
leaping dancers, remind one of the Indian war dances.
The dance seems to be a relic of more barbarous days when the Negritos
were, in truth, savages. They say that they never kill a prisoner in
this manner now, but that when they find it necessary to put a man
to death they do it in the quickest manner possible with a single
blow of the knife. (See Pl. L.)
The Lovers' Dance
As might be expected, a man and a woman take part in the lovers'
dance. The women are not such energetic and tireless dancers as the
men, and in the lovers' dance the woman, although keeping her feet
moving in time to the music, performs in an indolent, passive manner,
and does not move from the spot where she begins. But the man circles
about her, casting amorous glances, now coming up quite close, and
then backing away again, and at times clapping his hands and going
through all sorts of evolutions as if to attract the woman. This sort
of thing is kept up until one or both are tired.
The Duel Dance
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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