Part 20 (1/2)
The i movements of the native coinals frequenting open plains where the great birds assemble In its performance the men--decorated with streaks and daubs of white and pink clay, and wearing in their hair down and feathers--for their bodies towards the centre, chuckle in undertones to the pianissis In strict time, to a crescendo accompaniment, the performers throw out their arms, extend their necks doard and upward, simultaneously utter squawks in i their ar instantly by a common impulse The ballet is modelled in accordance with a study of Nature
The corrobboree of the Princess Charlotte Bay boys also owes its origin to Nature, but Nature in one of her most unpoetical moods--a mood as typical of Constantinople as of their native shores, for its ht
Shall the uncultured blacks not have their ohen they seek entertain ”as it were thethat it reflects the co all the nations of the world alone have discovered what to them is eographical lie, nor to be withered by age
While the orchestra taps its boorunts, two boys in ress towards the fire in a series of stiff, stilty juid; then the knees shake in a rapid succession of spas the prelis Action and utterance develop in speed and tiins in earnest, and the art of the performance consists in its duration--the powers of sustained effort, the accuracy of time maintained between the orchestra and the actors, and the fidelity to nature of the vocal effects A singularly uncouth subject for an opera or even a ballet--the snarling, scuffling and snapping of quarrelso up to a climax, and it soon becomes as monotonous to unaccustomed ears as the masterpieces of some German composers to those whose musical education is below the required standard; but the boys will spend the best part of the long night in its unvarying repetition
Once a variation did take place ”Yellowbelly” (pronounced decently ”Yellowby”) danced first in the co ”Johnny,” shy ”Malistened with perspiration, and his eyes sparkled with the joy of a phenomenal accoratification It was Yellowby's night out The spirit of Terpsichore was upon him His enthusias not only the silent and subdued natives of Dunk Island, but even his own familiar friends Never had any seen such a classic interpretation of the therowling and snapping and intermittent yelps, such muffled, sob-like inspirations Yellowby danced as dances the artist, so graphically interpreting the subject that the bewildered orchestra forgot itself All were borne away in spirit to the scene of some far-off, familiar camp, where the scents of decayed fish and turtle-bones, and of a led with the bitter sins and the screeches of piccaninnies and the walloping of ht home sweet home to each of the exiles, so vividly that all sat still and transfixed, and as the last chord of the orchestra ”I treasped as he fell flat on the sand--”No good you fella corrobboree like that fella, belonga me fella” But for the collapse of the orchestra, due to his own inimitable art, he would have danced till dawn
A SONG WITHOUT WORDS
Mickie is a fas lustily and with no little art, putting considerable expression into his phrases, and ever and anon taking a sharp but studied rest to increase his eain with full-throated ease His inal Indeed he claiifts of a coht Mickie his favourite romance, and it caa that fella die Jacky go to sleep That fella dead man all a same like debil-debil--coa Jacky”
”What that debil-debil say?”
Mickie--”No talk--that fella Just tell 'e without words--the final phrases being three guttural gasps, diluendo, which Mickie says represent the wail of the ”debil-debil”
as he retires into the obscurity of spirit-land
Mickie sings this song of inspiration orously, when Jinny, his portly spouse, co, and she explains with a fat chuckle--”Mickie corrobboree loud fella He fright
He think subpose he corrobboree blenty debil-debil no come up”
ORIGIN OF THE SOUTHERN CROSS
Blacks are students of natural events The winds have their specific titles, and they catalogue all the brighter and more conspicuous stars and planets, while their astrono to Mickie, the Southern Cross is of earthly origin He thus ”repeats the story of its birth”
”You see that fella That one me call 'em dooey-dooey--all a saoon Two fella, , come close up behind dooey-dooey, two fella black boy
Black boys bin fishi+ng alonga reef close up alonga where red a canoe Bi' fella, o down quick, co time by that reef; no catch 'e way; no catch 'eo outside; follow canoe all ti way yet Swim more far, brother' Bi' way outside Magnetic close up now We two fella swi way Bi', brother, youn-o outside'
”Two fella boy siether; leave 'eood bye; no co way up! You see now Sit down up there altogether Dooey-dooey first time; two fella boy come behind!”
Does not this stand comparison with that referred to by the SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN in answering the question, ”Why do you refer to the Great Bear as fey for the reason It was known to the Egyptians, who called it hippopotamus
The people of southern Europe saw in the saends which grew up around it were finally given permanent shape by Ovid in his METAMORPHOSES As he tells the story, Callisto, an Arcadian nyer, turned her into a bear, depriving her of speech that she , canise her in her metamorphosed form, raised his bow to shoot Jupiter,the son into a bear, and took the the constellations
CROCODILE CATCHING
Though they have a wholesoenerally, the blacks of the Lower Tully River (some 5 miles down the coast) have, in a li in the sport of catching them for food Natives of the locality tell me that the last occasion of the death of a crocodile in the o Some would have you believe the practice is of coh for its truth I do not vouch), that having located a crocodile in a reach of the river when the tide has run out, the blacks for the water anda continuous commotion The crocodile is poked out of secluded nooks beside the bank and fro allowed a hly cowed (and it is an undoubted fact that crocodiles htened into passiveness), a rope of lawyer vine is passed round a convenient tree and held by half a dozen boys, while a running noose isblack dives into the water, and cautiously approaching the bewildered creature, slips the noose over its head and backs away Should he turn his face, the blacks say the crocodile would immediately seize him The party on the bank hauls on the line, and in spite of protests and struggling the game is landed, to be chopped and beaten to death with tomahawks and nulla-nullas Then follows a feast, the inevitable surfeit, and the dire conclusion that crocodile as ”tucker” is no good
The flesh is said to be ”All a saations lead to the opinion that a crocodile was once caught in the le instance the proud feat has been multiplied by the score