The rhythm throughout the proceedings remains excellent, but great variations are met with during the rendering of different items; it is always in keeping with the dance, if the latter is indulged in, even at the risk of running away momentarily from the time of the music.
Performances which include dances as well as songs in the way of entertainment are generally called corrobborees; events of a ceremonial, ritual, or religious nature are termed “boras.”
The notes included in the songs of tribal performances are often imitative of the voice of Nature, and among them we find allusions to the calls and cries of birds, animals, reptiles, and mythical creatures. At the same time, any characteristic actions or attitudes are faithfully reproduced as special features of the dances.
In the crocodile ceremony of the Cambridge Gulf natives, a number of men stand in a row, one behind the other, with their arms extended and their legs asunder, whilst the individual impersonating the crocodile ancestor wriggles along the ground between their legs. When he comes abreast of the foremost man, he lies flat on the ground, with his legs and feet held closely together to imitate the reptile’s tail. To further mimic the crocodile, he extends his arms sideways, strongly bent at the elbows, and with the hands flat upon the ground. Retaining this position, he next elevates his body by straightening his arms, and, when fully erect, opens his mouth and emits a harsh, booming note resembling that of a crocodile.
In the same district, the great emu man, during his ceremony, walks within a human circle, his body prone from the hips, with one arm held forwards to represent the emu’s neck and the hand of the other held over his stern to indicate the tail. As he walks around bowing his body, after the fashion of a strutting emu, he eructates deep, guttural noises, resembling the grunting note of the bird.
How the caw of a crow is embodied in the musical programme of a ceremony will be apparent from the following episode which was transacted at the Forrest River. A number of men stood in a ring, and, at a given signal, lowered their bodies between their knees. They let their heads fall forwards, and at the same time lifted their arms, which they bent in the elbow to resemble wings. The latter they moved lithely to and fro after much the same way as a young bird does when it is being, or wants to be, fed. At this moment a chant was started in imitation of the crow’s call: “A wa, a wa, a weh!” and was ofttimes repeated. Then they all hopped around like so many birds in search of food, and two men entered the ring. Still in the same posture, these two hopped towards each other and extended their arms until each pair crossed the opposite pair. In that position they swung their bodies backwards and forwards, whilst their arms sea-sawed in front of them. Then they re-joined the group, and all continued the hopping. In the next act, an old man lay flat on his back, in the centre of the ring, with his arms and legs stretched from him. He represented a carcase. The “crows” hopped around him and cried: “A, a, a, la, la, la-la-la,” and it sounded very much like the caw of a crow. This item was repeated. One of the crow men then hopped to the “dead” man. He lifted one of the arms from the ground, held it up, and let it go. The limb fell “lifelessly” to the ground. Immediately this had happened, all performers jumped into an upright position, rushed towards the man feigning death, and carried him from view. Apart from the imitation of the crow’s call, no regular song accompanied the act, but all the onlookers were beating time, to correspond with the hopping, by slapping their hands against their thighs.
The vocal accompaniment at a ceremony of welcome on Bathurst Island is in the form of a trill, a rapidly repeated “i, i, i, i, i ...,” changing occasionally to “hi, hi, hi, hi ...,” which is very cleverly reproduced in imitation of the note of the great stone plover.
In the corrobboree of a frog, the Larrekiya sing the following refrain:
“Iwoggiama wogien woggiamana wogien, immangana jellerrima wogien.
Imbaka kwuerakwa wogien. Imbelluoluodö wogien.”