In Windessi, Dutch New Guinea, when a party of head-hunters has been successful, and they are nearing home, they announce their approach and success by blowing on triton shells. Their canoes are also decked with branches. The faces of the men who have taken a head are blackened with charcoal. If several have taken part in killing the same victim, his head is divided among them. They always time their arrival so as to reach home in the early morning. They come rowing to the village with a great noise, and the women stand ready to dance in the verandahs of the houses.... The day is spent very quietly. Now and then they drum or blow on the conch; at other times they beat the walls of the houses with loud shouts to drive away the ghosts of the slain.
If, as seems probable, we have here a case of the dance taking place as a welcome home, and as a mark of honour to the victorious warriors, then we are justified in regarding it as the remains of the fuller form of the dance which was performed during the whole period of the absence of the warriors, and with a different object. In any case, such a remnant, involving a transition from one purpose to another, would be in the natural order of things,—the original purpose of the dance being an act of imitative magic to effect victory, the remnant being merely a form of welcome home to the victorious warriors; and such a transition could be paralleled by analogies, as every folklorist is well aware[304]. In course of time the original purpose or purposes of the dance would be completely forgotten, and when a reason was sought it would be simply and solely that of the welcome to the home-coming victors.
It is this latter, and this alone, which is the purpose of this type of dance in the Old Testament. But that the custom, like all ancient customs, must have a long history behind it, and that the ostensible purpose or purposes of such customs vary according to the cultural stage of the people among whom they are in vogue, will be generally allowed. We venture, therefore, to suggest the possibility that in its very much earlier phases among the ancestors of the Israelites some such objects as those indicated were connected with this type of dance.
SUMMARY AND CONSIDERATIONS
Joyful expressions for victory in battle lie in the nature of things; and since dancing is, and always has been, one of the means of giving vent to this feeling, its mention in the Old Testament in this connexion is what might be expected. In the few examples of this dance recorded in the Old Testament the points to be noted are that it is performed as an act of thanksgiving to Jahwe; this stamps it as in the nature of a sacred rite. It is also a welcome home to the victorious warriors and a tribute to their bravery; but in all probability at the back of this there was always the thought of the real author of the victory, the national God; for it was in His name that the warriors had consecrated themselves for the battle, and in His name that they had, therefore, gone forth to fight (cp. Deut. xx. 1 ff.). Moreover, it has to be remembered that the nation’s enemies were always regarded as the enemies of the national God. The religious character of the rite is thus emphasized. A further point is that these dances, together with accompanying music, were performed by women. As it was the men who had gone forth to fight it will be argued that there could be none but women to perform the dances. At the same time, it cannot be supposed that a district would be wholly denuded of men; some, it may reasonably be expected, remained at home for various reasons; see e.g. Deut. xx. 6-8, xxiv. 5. But the performance of the rite seems to have been entirely restricted to women. It may be that there was in its early origins some reason for this, for we find a similar restriction among races of lower civilization.
This type of dance is quite distinct from the war-dance; whether there was anything in the nature of a war-dance among the Israelites we have no means of ascertaining; it is never even hinted at in the Old Testament. On the other hand, there was preparation for battle in the form of sacrifice to Jahwe.
There were some other customs regarding preparation and “consecration” for battle among the Israelites which point to the lingering of very old-world conceptions; this fact offers some justification for the contention that this type of sacred dance may possibly be the remains, in a developed form, of a rite which originally contained some similar old-world conception. By “remains, in a developed form,” we mean a rite shorn of its original content, but which continues to be observed, and has a new meaning assigned to it. We have in the Old Testament distinct references to the taboo on sexual intercourse for warriors previous to battle (Deut. xxiii. 10, 11; 1 Sam. xxi. 4, 5 [5, 6 in Hebr.]; 2 Sam. xi. 11).
The extension of this kind of taboo to warriors on an expedition is common among rude peoples, and we know that it had place among the Arabs, and was not wholly obsolete as late as the second century of Islām[305].
In reference to the rule laid down in Deut. xxiii. 10, 11, Frazer rightly points out that