Note 7 — Chapter II · CEREMONIAL CUSTOMS

Early on the morning of the fourth day, soon after daybreak, the whole village is astir. One of the older men takes his stand by the sounding-board used for marking time at dances, and the women sit down near him. The youth comes out from his hut and stands in the middle of the dancing ground, and five or six men stand round him in a circle, each of them facing towards the youth. Each of the men, including the youth, holds in each hand a bundle of twigs of the Hibiscus tiliaceus or, if such be not obtainable, of the Myristica longifolia. The man at the sounding-board sings a song, beating time with his foot, in the usual way, on the sounding-board, and at the chorus the women join in and mark the time by clapping their hands on their thighs. The song may be on any subject and is selected by the singer from his own repertory. A song referring to turtle-hunting is preferred. During the first song the dancers stand at their positions on the dancing ground, lifting up their leaf bundles at short intervals and bringing them down against their knees. The singer then commences a new song or repeats the former one, and when the song comes to an end the youth and those with him begin their dance. Each dancer flexes his hips so that his back is nearly horizontal. He raises his hands to the back of his neck so that the two bundles of leaves in his hands rest on his back. With knees flexed he leaps from the ground with both feet, keeping time to the beating of the sounding-board, which is about 144 beats to the minute. At the end of every eight jumps or so, the dancer brings his hands forwards, downwards and backwards, giving a vigorous sweep with the bundles of leaves, which scrape the ground at each side of his feet, and then brings back the bundles to their former position. They dance thus for 15 or 30 seconds and then pause to rest. The dance is repeated several times, until the youth is tired out. As the dance is extremely fatiguing this does not take long7.