As a few examples of many these cases of the dance taking place after the return from victory show that one of its purposes was the propitiation of the ghosts of the slain.
We turn now to some other instances in which the dance had a different purpose. An old historian of Madagascar informs us that
while the men are at the wars, and until their return, the women and girls cease not day and night to dance, and neither lie down nor take food in their own homes.... They believe that by dancing they impart strength, courage, and good fortune to their husbands; accordingly during such times they give themselves no rest, and this custom they observe very religiously[300].
A similar result is believed to be brought about by dancing, according to Mr Fitzgerald Marriott, among West African tribes. He says that while the Ashantee war was raging he
saw a dance performed by women whose husbands had gone as carriers to the war. They were painted white, and wore nothing but a short petticoat. At their head was a shrivelled old sorceress in a very short white petticoat.... All carried white brushes made of buffalo or horse tails, and as they danced they sang, “Our husbands have gone to Ashanteeland; may they sweep their enemies off the face of the earth[301]!”
Again, among the Thompson Indians of British Columbia, “when the men were on the war-path, the women performed dances at frequent intervals. These dances were believed to ensure the success of the expedition.” The same holds good among the Yuki tribe of Indians in California; the women at home danced, believing that this would ensure victory. So, too, among the Haida women who danced and sang while their husbands were away fighting; also among the women in the Kafir district of the Hindoo Koosh of whom Sir George Robertson reports that he
more than once watched the dancers dancing at midnight and in the early morning, and could see by the fitful glow of the wood-fire how haggard and tired they looked, yet how gravely and earnestly they persisted in what they regarded as a serious duty[302].
In all these cases the dancing is in the nature of sympathetic magic, and has, therefore, an entirely different purpose from that of the previous instances cited, namely that of ensuring victory. While in the cases of ghost-propitiation the dancing, though essential, is subordinate, in the sympathetic magical, or telepathic, type it is central.
One other example is worth giving, for it is one in which the dancing takes place as a welcome to the warriors on their return from battle, and is, therefore, not of a telepathic nature; on the other hand, it does not appear to be undertaken with the idea of propitiating the ghosts of the slain, while the frightening of them away is not done by the dancers. Frazer, quoting van der Roest[303], gives this example in the following words: