In the improvised ditties that are sung during these dances Darwin would, of course, have found the most convincing proofs of the applicability of his theory to poetry. Among love-inspired songs few specimens can be found which are so genuine, and at the same time so full of delicate feeling, as the harvest antiphonies sung by the Khyoungtha boys and girls.[360] How high an opinion of the power in poetry to charm is held by these tribes can be judged from the fact that the Chukmas never allow any songs but those of a religious character to be sung in their villages. Our girls would be demoralised, they say, if boys were allowed to sing freely. When living in the jungle, however, where the rules of morality are laxer, the Chukmas allow their poetry greater license.[361] It is needless to say that some kind of erotic poetry is generally to be found in all the tribes where dancing expresses love. There have been translated some exquisite samples of erotic songs composed by the Malay tribes of Java and Sumatra. In some instances it is quite evident that these songs have been used as means of winning the favour of the women. In other cases, however, it seems safest to draw no conclusions as to their purpose. At any rate, love occupies an important place in the poetry which has been collected in Malaysia, not only among the Malays proper, but also among the Tagals, Alfuras, Battaks, etc.[362] In some of their dancing songs the Australian aboriginal poets are said to describe the charms of their sweethearts.[363] But we know of no poems in which they appear to be directly addressed. Neither have we found any decisive statement as to the character of the erotic poetry in Tahiti and New Zealand.[364] Purer and more unmistakable examples of singing used as a means of erotic propitiation can be adduced from some of the American nations. The Iroquois, for whom dancing festivals are of great importance in the intercourse between the sexes, are well aware of the powers of a serenade when they wish to entice a girl from her hut to a meeting.[365] In old Mexico and Peru, where erotic poetry had reached a high degree of refinement, songs and music were undoubtedly used in courtship.[366] But with these barbaric but not savage peoples we have already left primitive man far behind.