The Muenane, who occupy a part of the central Issa-Japura watershed, between the Andoke and the Resigero, possess a dance of their own, which has travelled into many of the other tribes south of the Japura, and has become very popular.[331] This is a combination of a riddle and an animal dance. The figure is formed as in the pine-apple dance, but the centre is taken by a warrior who has gained a reputation as a wit. His business is to ask a riddle, which will in all probability be an original one, and he asks it after the manner of a chant. Naturally a man with at least the indigenous sense of wit is loudly applauded and received with shrieks of laughter from the outset. The dancers take up the chanted question as they rotate round the questioner. At the end of the measure the dance stops, and the riddler rushes frantically round the circle with a lighted torch, looking, like Alcibiades, for a man—to answer his riddle. He stops suddenly, thrusts his torch into the face of a performer, and, peering into his eyes to seek for some sign of answering intelligence, repeats his question. The answer, if in the negative, is given—whatever the tribe dancing may be—in the tongue of the originators of the dance, Muenane—“Jana” (I do not know). The dancer thereupon, having failed to reply correctly, is then impressed to be a follower of the questioner, and must rush after him and imitate all his antics, which are apparently to give the clue to the riddle. In a short time a long single file of these failures is engaged in presenting a burlesque of the habits of the animal whose name is the answer required. The first performer who guesses correctly becomes the questioner in turn, and the dance starts afresh.
It may be pertinent here to relate an incident which tends to convey at least an insight into the Indian character, the lack of altruism, the love of discomfiture of others. On one occasion the questioner—evidently to take a rise out of a stranger, and being intoxicated, if not with coca at least with the dancing mania—thrust his torch into my face, nearer than would be tolerated in the usual way. I quickly placed my foot on his chest, with the resultant back-somersault of torch and man. The shrieks of laughter lasted a considerable time. I was the hero of the hour, and custom decreed that the victim should laugh at his own discomfiture.
All Indians are clever mimics, and the fidelity with which they reproduce the actions of jaguars, tapirs, monkeys, parrots, and other familiar animals of the bush is remarkable. The riddles are nearly always concerned with animals, and the test of wit is the amount of sexual suggestion contained in the reply.[332] A typical query is, “When is a howler-monkey not a howler?” The answer would be, “When he is covering his mate.” The dumb show of the actors delights the audience, and leaves no small characteristic to the imagination. The riddles may defy translation, but the actions are certainly not beyond interpretation.
In this connection it is well to refer again to the subject of dance intoxication. The excitement due to rhythmic motion struck me very forcibly. It should be remembered too that the men are heroic cocainists, and this stimulant, in forcing the imagination, undoubtedly for the moment—qua alcohol—has an aphrodisiacal tendency. The sexual innuendoes of the songs, though not of the dance, increase the effect. It must also be borne in mind that five days and nights is not an uncommon limit to one dance. It may cease at sunrise for a short space, and individuals, of course, rest and sleep as nature may dictate, but never, to my knowledge, for any length of time.
PLATE XLVII.
OKAINA DANCE
On one occasion I was witness to the most remarkable salacity on the part of an individual. In my innocence I considered it part of the dance, and was satisfied with the idea that I had at last happed upon the indigenous counterpart of the coition and parturition dances of the East. It was not until the man was restrained by order of the chief that the true facts were realised.[333] But this was exceptional. The dance is carried on with frenzy and excitement, but with nothing beyond that. It never touches eroticism.[334] The dance never ends, as we know ending. It dwindles to cessation.
Another dance, much appreciated by the tribes between the Issa and the Japura, is not very dissimilar in essentials from the musical chairs of our childhood. The dancers form into a line, or two parallel lines, and, headed by the song-leader, carry out the customary step in single file. At the leader’s mention of a certain word, or perhaps a certain subject, previously agreed upon, the whole line must right-about turn, and pick up the step again without losing a beat. Those who fail are withdrawn from the line. The dance continues until the fittest alone remain, and is productive of general amusement.
But there are more tragic inspirations for a dance than the guessing of riddles or the garnering of the crops. I refer to the triumphant home-coming of tribal warriors, laden with booty from the war-path, with a band of doomed prisoners. The treatment of the latter and their disposal at the feast have been already dealt with. But the cannibal ritual of insult is not the end. When the orgy of blood and gluttony is over, the warriors must dance. Only the men may take part in the feast, so only the men may participate in this dance. The music is chiefly that of the drums, and to their gloomy rolling—according to Robuchon’s account—the warriors lurch portentously, drunk already with victory, and excited by dancing. They break apart frequently to stir the great troughs of liquor with the forearms of their dead enemies, and to quaff deep calabashes full of drink. Then they stagger back to the wild intoxication of the dance. Their songs become shrieks, demoniacal, hellish. For eight days this horrible dance of triumph continues, while the captive boys and girls, young enough to be saved from the fate of the earthen pot, cower in the darkness of the maloka and suffer, perforce in silence, the gibes of the women. But this scene defies description.