. Reminiscences of the South seas . have club dances,but also dances with spears, extremely long spears, madeto shake and tremble like the long shadow casting spearof the Iliads; while sometimes the warriors stood allmotionless, crouched or poised, or leaning with the otherarm upon their clubs. Finally the last cohort came downin a mass, the front rank waving great fans and bendingto the right and left, while the main body of the men bran-dished their spears above them. To add to the confusion ofsight of the looker-on many had their faces painted not only inblack but in vivid red, so that one
. Reminiscences of the South seas . have club dances,but also dances with spears, extremely long spears, madeto shake and tremble like the long shadow casting spearof the Iliads; while sometimes the warriors stood allmotionless, crouched or poised, or leaning with the otherarm upon their clubs. Finally the last cohort came downin a mass, the front rank waving great fans and bendingto the right and left, while the main body of the men bran-dished their spears above them. To add to the confusion ofsight of the looker-on many had their faces painted not only inblack but in vivid red, so that one would feel that a certainsurprise and astonishment might well attend their appearanceand attack. Things of the kind taken by themselves seemuseless, but seen in real use, the motives that have broughtthem about unfold, and one can see for instance how thepainting of the face makes a mask behind which the intentionsor purposes lie concealed and in ambush. When all this wasover the crowd melted away, and we walked back to the chiefs. pi< o (J Q REMINISCENCES OF THE SOUTH SEAS 407 house, stopping, some of us, for a moment at a less importantone to see what it was hke; shpping up and down on thepoHshed wood of the drawbridge, and resting on the raiseddais at one end, filled with grass and covered with soft mats,where the owner slept. Behind us on the wall was a litho-graph in colour, framed — the Madonna of Raphaels —the good man probably a Catholic. Otherwise less fine, thehouse was as the other. Some one of the party wasted sometime in asking for a dance of the women, which we did notobtain, and so we were late on our arrival; and as we sat downon the mats outside, near the Governor and the captain, wefound that the ceremony of presentation of food had gone onfor some time, and that we were only in at the end. But wesaw the herald divide it, somewhat as in Samoa. It wouldas we understood, go back to the village that gave it — thebig hog not cooked enough, and the great b
Size: 1137px × 2198px
Photo credit: © Reading Room 2020 / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1910, bookidreminiscence, bookyear1912
