Book Title: Indian Antiquary Vol 24
Author(s): Richard Carnac Temple
Publisher: Swati Publications

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Page 171
________________ JUNE, 1895.) SPIRIT BASIS OF BELIEF AND CUSTOM 167 pay of the king, and went to war.84 In the procession of teachers, or gurús, in South India, dancing girls take part, singing indecent songs, and making indecent movements. Among the Hindus of Southern India, no religious ceremony or festival is thought to be performed with requisite order or magnificence unless it is accompanied by dancing. Every great temple has its set of dancers.98 The Hindus consider dancing a form of devotion.87 The Shinars of Tinnevelly are famous dancers. They begin slowly and growing by degrees excited, they glare, leap, and snort till they lose self-control and believe they are possessed by a spirit.99 The possessed dancers of Ceylon closely resemble those of Tinnevelly.89 According to Maurice, the Indians used to perform a circular dance in honour of the sun. In Burma, dancing is a favourite mode of welcoming an official.01 The Burman ocasionally dances on his way to the pagoda ix · a hideously solemn tone of mind.92 The Buddhist priests dance, whirling wildly among the round tables placed in front of the goddess of mercy.93 Dancing to the light of large basket torches is common in Japanese temples. In Japan, sacred dances are held in honour of the goddess Ise, when girls dance holding a branch of the sakakai in their hands.96 At Australian dances, or carobarres, each dancer carries a stuffed animal on his back.06 Dancing is common among West Australians. Dr. Livingstone bays of the South Africans, when people ask the name of a tribe, they say: "What do you dance ?"98 Dancing among Sonth Africans is accompanied by loud shouting.99 Dancers among the Arsauins of Morocco cut the body till blood flows.100 The Hottentots have a reed dance, which they perform in front of any high stranger who comes to their village. A solitary Hottentot was seen dancing and singing round a heap of stones. He had slept there one night, and next morning found that a lion had passed close to him. He judged that his escape was due to the stones, which must be the house of a god or & ghost. Therefore, as often as he passed be danced in memory of the spirit's kindness. The Hottentots rise at dawn, take each by the hands, and dance. The Hottentots' chief religious function is the igci, or religious dance. The Bongos of the White Nile at harvest time yell and dance, At West African festivals men and women dance together, singing ribald songs. The Ugogo negroes dance and drink grain beer. Their dances are indecent. In their great festival, the King of Dahomey himself dances with a wife or two on either side. The curious American Masquerade dances were naked, but apparently moral. - In the fourteenth century, during the misery of the Black Death, a dancing manis passed over Europe which was cured by exorcism. Burton notices that the dancing fits sometimes lasted for a month, and were believed to be caused by evil spirits. Music soothed the disease. In Sweden, reels and other dances were performed by the heathen over the holy places of their gods. In France and in the Scotch Orkneys, people danced round large upright stones, singing by moonlight.13 In Orkney (1793), people used to dance and sing round a big standing stone.14 The early Christian Church denounced dancing, keeping open public houses at night, and getting drunk on the first of January 15 The violent exercise, shouting and finger-cracking, which accompany a Scotch reel, suggest that it was originally danced to drive away or to 'house spirits. Circle-dances remained in England in the Maypole dances and in the child's dance known as “round the mulberry bush." Bun Stanley's Barbosa, p. 97. ^ Dubois, Vol. I. p. 173. * Moore's Narrative, p. 854. 1 Ward's View of the Hindus, Vol. II. p. 322. 48 Caldwell in Balfour, p. 582. * Tylor's Primitive Culture, Vol. II. p. 183. * Maurioe's Indian Antiquities, Vol. II. p. 301. * Shway Yoo's The Burman, Vol. II. p. 8. n Op. cit. Vol. II. p. 1. Op.cit. Vol. L p. 163. Reed's Japan, Vol. II. p. 214. Op. cit. Vol. II. p. 252 Jour. Anthrop. Inst. Vol. VII. p. 251. Op. cit. Vol. V. p. 820. Dr. Livingstone's Travels in South Africa, p. 18. Op. cit. p. 225. Rohlf's Morocco, P. 255. 1 Habn's Toni Goom, p. 28. Op. cit. p. 43. Op. cit. p. 40. • Op. cit. p. 59. Schweinfurth's Heart of Africa, Vol. L p. 855. • Cameron's Across Africa, Vol. II. p. 229. + Op. cit. Vol. I. p. 190. • Burton's Visit to Dahomey, Vol. I. p. 335. • Bancroft, Vol. II, p. 5. 10 Eur. Rat. Vol. I. p. 60. 11 Barton's Anatomy of Melancholy, p. 90. 19 Grimm's Teuto. wyth. Vol. III. p. 1056. 13 Leslie's Early Races of Scotland, Vol. I. p. 188. 14 Brand's Popular Antiquities, Vol. I p. 19. 15 Henderson's Poll-Lore, p. 6.

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