“Tupatunan tenakomejona.”
At Fowler’s Bay, the men like no dance so much as one which caricatures a woman on a collecting excursion. The performer walks from the darkness of night into the bright glare produced by the camp-fire, with an exaggerated bend of the knees and a loudly perceptible stamp of the feet. Over one of his shoulders he carries a collecting bag, and as he moves forwards and sideways, his eyes are rivetted to the ground in front of him; he is supposed to be looking for food-stuffs. Suddenly he stops, stoops, and feigns to be picking up something, which is assigned to the bag. Then he hurries on and repeats the same performance. Whilst he is acting thus, the audience, grouped at one side of the fire, is diligently beating time to his steps by knocking two boomerangs (“kaili”) together.
In another act he walks quickly into the light, stops suddenly, and looks hard at the ground in front of him. Presently he lifts his right foot, only to immediately bring it back to the ground again with a thud. Emitting a squeal like that of a dying or wounded bandicoot, he stoops and makes out he is lifting his prey triumphantly into the air.
Yet another performance portrays the slaying of an enemy. A second actor, who represents the vanquished foe, is requested to lie in the centre of the arena, whilst the victor dances around him, wildly flourishing and swinging his club. Every now and then the ground is bashed with the heavy weapon as near to the prostrate figure as possible; and after every blow the fallen warrior is seen to writhe his body between the legs of the victor as if he were really suffering terrible agony.
An aboriginal often sings to himself for no other purpose than for his own entertainment, in which occupation he manifests considerable pleasure, and repeats the tune to his heart’s content, at times almost to the verge of physical exhaustion. In his endeavour to become a noted singer amongst his tribespeople, a man at every opportunity stimulates his ambition. He listens with envy to the tireless chirping of a cricket and suggests to himself the advantages of acquiring such powers of vocal endurance (as he imagines them to be). The Larrekiya youths admire the large Cicadae for similar reasons; and they do not hesitate, upon occasions, to catch one or two of the winged music-makers and suck their viscera, hoping thereby to acquire increased musical talent.
When singing ensemble, the musical productions have widely varying purposes and meanings. The performance might be purely convivial and entertaining, when a number of refrains are hummed or sung, solo and collectively, to the combined accompaniment which is rendered by most of the others present. Any attempt at harmony is wanting. Boisterous music can always be counted upon at tribal war-dances, when the excited and infuriated mobs almost lose control of their reason, and by singing to their ancestral fathers endeavour to bring destruction upon the enemy by the wildest imprecatory acts.
At initiation ceremonies, the old men, at the time of spilling the novice’s blood, are no less excited; and the musical items are reduced to hoarse, rude utterances of a decidedly disquieting flavour. Under these conditions the soul of a true savage unmasks itself. It speaks in coarse, disconnected sounds which are hardly recognizable as human, but, at the moment, none the less in sympathy with his inner feelings.
PLATE LI
1. Ochre-drawings of mythic semi-human creatures, Forrest River, north-western Australia.