DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.68796#0062
42
The Festival
PART I
song are the most universal of all the forms of art con-
nected with the festival and claim a word in this place.
We cannot turn over the pages of a book of travels
amongst uncivilised races without finding soon a descrip-
tion of some festival, jocund or melancholy, with which
are connected such simple, though often graceful and
telling, forms of art. Celebrations almost exactly similar
meet us in the pages of Homer and Herodotus, of Plato
and Pausanias, and in our own day in southern lands
where classical tradition still lingers, or where tempera-
ments are naturally more vivacious and expressive, we find
the population still ready to cast off the serious business of
life and indulge in the dance and song, in procession or in
scenic show.
§ 24. The festal Dance among savages;
Here is a specimen passage from the narrative of a
recent African explorer that exhibits a primitive festal rite
as it has probably been performed from time immemorial
under similar circumstances. ‘The 23rd was spent by all
the people of the plain country as a thanksgiving day, and
the Bavira women met at the camp to relieve their joy at
their deliverance from their inveterate enemy with dancing
and singing which lasted from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Each
woman and child in the dance circles was decked with
bunches of green leaves in front and rear, and was painted
with red clay, while their bodies were well smeared with
butter. The dance was excellent and exciting and not
ungraceful, but the healthy vocal harmony was better. The
young warriors circled round the female dancers and
exhibited their dexterity with the spear.’ 1
Stanley, In Darkest Africa, Lond. 1890, ii. p. 120.
The Festival
PART I
song are the most universal of all the forms of art con-
nected with the festival and claim a word in this place.
We cannot turn over the pages of a book of travels
amongst uncivilised races without finding soon a descrip-
tion of some festival, jocund or melancholy, with which
are connected such simple, though often graceful and
telling, forms of art. Celebrations almost exactly similar
meet us in the pages of Homer and Herodotus, of Plato
and Pausanias, and in our own day in southern lands
where classical tradition still lingers, or where tempera-
ments are naturally more vivacious and expressive, we find
the population still ready to cast off the serious business of
life and indulge in the dance and song, in procession or in
scenic show.
§ 24. The festal Dance among savages;
Here is a specimen passage from the narrative of a
recent African explorer that exhibits a primitive festal rite
as it has probably been performed from time immemorial
under similar circumstances. ‘The 23rd was spent by all
the people of the plain country as a thanksgiving day, and
the Bavira women met at the camp to relieve their joy at
their deliverance from their inveterate enemy with dancing
and singing which lasted from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Each
woman and child in the dance circles was decked with
bunches of green leaves in front and rear, and was painted
with red clay, while their bodies were well smeared with
butter. The dance was excellent and exciting and not
ungraceful, but the healthy vocal harmony was better. The
young warriors circled round the female dancers and
exhibited their dexterity with the spear.’ 1
Stanley, In Darkest Africa, Lond. 1890, ii. p. 120.