Book contents
- Frontmatter
- PREFACE
- Contents
- LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
- CHAPTER I
- CHAPTER II
- CHAPTER III
- CHAPTER IV
- CHAPTER V
- CHAPTER VI
- CHAPTER VII
- CHAPTER VIII
- CHAPTER IX
- CHAPTER X
- CHAPTER XI
- CHAPTER XII
- CHAPTER XIII
- CHAPTER XIV
- CHAPTER XV
- CHAPTER XVI
- CHAPTER XVII
- CHAPTER XVIII
- CHAPTER XIX
- CHAPTER XX
- APPENDICES
- LIST OF BOOKS REFERRED TO
- INDEX
- Plate section
- Frontmatter
- PREFACE
- Contents
- LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
- CHAPTER I
- CHAPTER II
- CHAPTER III
- CHAPTER IV
- CHAPTER V
- CHAPTER VI
- CHAPTER VII
- CHAPTER VIII
- CHAPTER IX
- CHAPTER X
- CHAPTER XI
- CHAPTER XII
- CHAPTER XIII
- CHAPTER XIV
- CHAPTER XV
- CHAPTER XVI
- CHAPTER XVII
- CHAPTER XVIII
- CHAPTER XIX
- CHAPTER XX
- APPENDICES
- LIST OF BOOKS REFERRED TO
- INDEX
- Plate section
Summary
Whatever of art there may be in the soul of the tribesman finds expression in the dance. It is the concert and the play, the opera, the ball, the carnival, and the feast of the Amazons, in that it gives opportunity for the aesthetic, artistic, dramatic, musical, and spectacular aspirations of the Indian's nature. It is his one social entertainment, and he invites to it every one living in amity with him. Any excuse is enough for a dance, but nevertheless the affair is a serious business. The dance, like the tobacco palaver, is a dominant factor in tribal life. For it the Amazonian treasures the songs of his fathers, and will master strange rhymes and words that for him no longer have meaning; he only knows they are the correct lines, the phrases he ought to sing at such functions, because they always have been sung, they are the words of the time-honoured tribal melodies. It is for these occasions that he fashions quaint dancing-staves and wonderful musical instruments, and dons all his treasured ornaments, while his wife paints her most dazzling skin costumes. He practises steps and capers, tutors his voice to the songs; meantime his children rehearse assiduously in the privacy of their forest playground, against the time when they too may take part in the tribal festivities.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- The North-West AmazonsNotes of Some Months Spent Among Cannibal Tribes, pp. 190 - 205Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2009First published in: 1915