Thy exile spirit is overtaken
By darkness at the ocean's edge.
Fourapapa[3] there sleeps. All three[4]
Stood awhile to gaze wistfully
At the glories of the setting sun."
There is much more, but this is perhaps sufficient to show the particular note struck.
I will give, in its entirety, one more dirge—the death-chant of the tribe of Badagas, in the Neilgherry Hills—because it is unique, so far as I know, in reversing the rule de mortius, and in charging, instead, the dead man with every sin, to make sure that none are omitted of which he is actually guilty. It is accompanied by a singular ceremony. An unblemished buffalo-calf is led into the midst of the mourners, and as after each verse they catch up and repeat the refrain, "It is a sin!" the performer of the dirge lays his hand upon the calf, to which the guilt is transferred. At the end the calf is let loose; like the Jewish scape-goat, it must be used for no secular work; it bears the sins of a human being, and is sacred till death. The English version is by Mr C. E. Gover, who has done so much for the preservation of South-Indian folk-songs.
Invocation.
In the presence of the great Bassava,