While the orchestra taps its boomerangs and claps its hands and grunts, two boys in mere nature progress towards the fire in a series of stiff, stilty jumps, the legs from the hips to the ankles being rigid; then the knees shake in a rapid succession of spasmodic jerks; the actors emit sounds resembling the preliminary growling and snarling of a couple of angry dogs. Action and utterance develop in speed and time as the fight begins in earnest, and the art of the performance consists in its duration—the powers of sustained effort, the accuracy of time maintained between the orchestra and the actors, and the fidelity to nature of the vocal effects. A singularly uncouth subject for an opera or even a ballet—the snarling, scuffling and snapping of quarrelsome dogs whose fury is working up to a climax, and it soon becomes as monotonous to unaccustomed ears as the masterpieces of some German composers to those whose musical education is below the required standard; but the boys will spend the best part of the long night in its unvarying repetition.
Once a variation did take place. "Yellowbelly" (pronounced decently "Yellowby") danced first in the company of giggling "Peter;" and then fat "Charley" and big "Johnny," shy "Mammeroo" and little deaf "Antony," in turns, his body glistened with perspiration, and his eyes sparkled with the joy of a phenomenal accomplishment. All beholders were filled with wonder and gratification. It was Yellowby's night out. The spirit of Terpsichore was upon him. His enthusiasm amounted to exultation. He was astonishing not only the silent and subdued natives of Dunk Island, but even his own familiar friends. Never had any seen such a classic interpretation of the theme, such brilliant leg movement, nor heard such realistic growling and snapping and intermittent yelps, such muffled, sob-like inspirations. Yellowby danced as dances the artist, so graphically interpreting the subject that the bewildered orchestra forgot itself. All were borne away in spirit to the scene of some far-off, familiar camp, where the scents of decayed fish and turtle-bones, and of a multitude of uncleanly dogs commingled with the bitter smoke of mangrove wood fires, where amid the yells of gins and the screeches of piccaninnies and the walloping of men, two mangy curs noisily wrestled. It brought home sweet home to each of the exiles, so vividly that all sat still and transfixed, and as the last chord of the orchestra "I trembled away into silence," Yellowby, panting and sweating, gasped as he fell flat on the sand—"No good you fella corrobboree like that fella, belonga me fella." But for the collapse of the orchestra, due to his own inimitable art, he would have danced till dawn.
A SONG WITHOUT WORDS
Mickie is a famous vocalist, although his repertoire is limited. He sings lustily and with no little art, putting considerable expression into his phrases, and ever and anon taking a sharp but studied rest to increase his emphasis, when he will burst forth again with full-throated ease. His masterpiece is not original. Indeed he claims no title to the gifts of a composer. "Jacky," a Mackay boy, taught Mickie his favourite romance, and it came to Jacky in a dream. Mickie explains— "Cousin alonga that fella die. Jacky go to sleep. That fella dead man all a same like debil-debil—come close up and tell 'em corrobboree close up ear belonga Jacky."
"What that debil-debil say?"
Mickie—"No talk—that fella. Just tell 'em corrobboree. No talk."
It was just a song without words—the final phrases being three guttural gasps, diluendo, which Mickie says represent the wail of the "debil-debil" as he retires into the obscurity of spirit-land.
Mickie sings this song of inspiration most vigorously, when Jinny, his portly spouse, comes to "wash 'em plate" in the evening, and she explains with a fat chuckle—"Mickie corrobboree loud fella. He fright. He think subpose he corrobboree blenty debil-debil no come up."
ORIGIN OF THE SOUTHERN CROSS
Blacks are students of natural events. The winds have their specific titles, and they catalogue all the brighter and more conspicuous stars and planets, while their astronomical legends are quaint and entertaining.