War dance

“ The dance proceeds until each youth is spitted and suspended from the central cluster of trees, then, with one accord, the men of the audience break from their places and join in the war-dance. They dance about the victims with a fierce glee like hundreds of fiends; they beat them, they slash them with knives, they thrust lighted brands upon the 288 fresh young flesh till it blisters and throws out nauseous odors. Their acts are acts of diabolical torture, inconceivably savage. But the worst agony is endured in desperate silence by each victim. ”

“ Of the first kind are the war-dances: if a warrior throws out a defiance to his enemy, it is done in a dance, in which he brandishes his spear and creese, pronouncing an emphatic challenge; if a native of the same country runs a muck, ten to one but he braves death in a dancing posture. When they swear eternal hatred to their enemies, or fidelity to their friends, the solemnity is accompanied by a dance ”

“ It was a very interesting sight to me, to see some eight or ten circles of young men and women, dancing in the same way, and to the same music, that I have described before, as a "war dance." And let me here say that women join the men in a real, genuine war dance, (when they have a scalp of some unfortunate Indian who has crossed their path,) and seem to enjoy it quite as well as the men; for they jump as high, and as often, and do a great deal of horrible yelling. ”

“ The war cry again rang out across the plain, and before the sound had died away the warriors had assembled for the war dance. They formed a large circle about the fire, and stood awaiting the word from Sun Bird, their leader. A number of aged men had come forward with the war drums, and taken places near the dancers. A hush fell upon the vast assemblage, as the Minneconjoux watched eagerly for the interesting spectacle to begin. ”

“ This curious mode forms a part and the commencement of the war-dance, and is generally led off by one of the War-chiefs, who dances forward alone, pretending to be skulking and hunting for the track of his enemy, and when he discovers it he beckons on his warriors, who steal into the dance behind him, and follow him up as he advances, and pretends at length to discover the enemy in the distance, ordering all to be ready for the attack. ”

“ The dance itself begins with stamping the feet in perfect time with each other, the vigor of the stamp increasing continually, and the excitement increasing in similar proportion.
Suddenly, with a yell, the whole body of men leap side-ways into the air, as if actuated by one spirit, and, as they touch the ground, come down on it with a mighty stamp that makes the earth tremble. The war song is raised, and in accordance with its rhythm the men leap from side to side, each time coming down with a thud as of some huge engine. The effect of the dance upon the performers is extraordinary. ”

“ As quick and sinewy as mountain cats, the young warriors pranced about the fire in a frenzy of enthusiasm. Each tried to surpass his fellows in the mad antics of the dance, and their maneuvers brought yells of approval from the fascinated onlookers. At one moment the dancers would stoop near the ground, and dance forward with short, mincing steps, shading their eyes with their hands, as if searching for the trail of their foes. ”

“ A wild flame is gleaming in my partner's eyes, and their pupils are sparkling like sunlit diamonds. Our maddening pace, together with that dancing tune, boisterous with its musically monotonous din, are acting upon him as a war-dance acts upon a primitive race. ”

“ It is a method of reinstating the excitements and the sentiments which inspired an earlier collective action. The savage war dance is a dramatic representation of battle and as such serves to rouse and reawaken the warlike spirit. This is one way in which ceremonial becomes a means of control. By reviving the memories of an earlier war, it mobilizes the warriors for a new one. ”

“ We never learned whether they had captured the horses or whether they had won them in the battle.
That night the Comanches had another big war-dance, and while the unfortunate squaws and children were weeping over the loss of their fathers and husbands, the victorious warriors were dancing, singing and shouting, and while dancing, each warrior would try to show as near as he could the manner in which he killed and scalped his enemy, and of all the silly maneuvers a white man ever witnessed, it was there at that war-dance. ”

“ The graces exhibited by the negroes in the dance that followed and was much admired by them, were not such as Europeans are pleased with. Their movements were shuffling, slovenly, and awkward, yet quick and vigorous, and were marked by holding the limbs and body as closely together as possible. All the dances have an obscene element, and, with the exception of the war-dance, suggest nothing higher than an exaltation of physical love. The war-dances, whether executed as entertainments or as a part of serious work, include a series of boastful, challenging movements. ”

“ This is a sort of war-dance, in which those who participate usually paint their bodies with white lines, like a skeleton, and seen through the obscurity of night, leaping around a faint fire, have the appearance of a set of dead bodies dancing. ”

“ During the intervals of dancing the relatives go round and round the lay figure, dusting and fanning it with their white cloths.
In the afternoon the men join the performance, and though their dancing has practically the same characteristics and motions as the women's dance, it is usually so much more violent that it almost partakes of the character of a war-dance. They hold in their right hands a sword, in the left a circular shield, and some of the younger men show great skill in the rapid manipulation of their blades, twirling them round their heads and behind their backs. ”

“ There are many others in which both men and women take part, but none particularly interesting. The war dance is done in crouching movements, and should look impressive when carried out by a well-trained crowd, but as few travellers have witnessed it it can only be surmised that it is grand. It is danced by the natives bearing their shield and spears in hand, and the performers sing a peculiar droning song during the ceremony. ”

“ On some occasions indeed, they make them part of the ceremony at their assemblies upon affairs, when even 224 their public debates are preceded by dancing, as if they expected that that exercise would rouse their mental faculties, and clear their heads. The war-dance is also used by them, by way of proclamation of war against their enemies. ”

“ On one of the few flat spaces in the village is kept the village drum, or ‘tom-tom,’ constantly in use for dances. One day we found the women of the village hard at work enjoying themselves round this drum, dancing a sort of war dance of their own. It was a queer sight to see these women, with deep furrows on their naked stomachs, rushing to and fro, stooping, kneeling, shouting, brandishing battle axes and assegais, and going through all the pantomime of war, until at last one of these Amazons fell into hysterics, and the dance was over. ”

“ Probably most of these actions have become more or less conventionalised during innumerable dance representations, just as some of the adjuncts to the dance are degenerate representations of objects used in [520] everyday life. In the war dance the actions illustrate the method pursued in war, ending with an evolution which represented the successful warriors threading the heads of the slain on the rattan slings which always hung on their backs when they went out to fight. ”

“ The signal is given, the war-song commences, and the mass moves simultaneously as if it were but one man. Every arm is in motion; every head turns at once; the feet of all strike the ground in time with such force that the vibration is felt for more than two hundred yards. Every muscle is in movement; every feature distorted; the most gentle countenance assumes a ferocious and savage expression. The more violent the contortions, the more beautiful the dance is considered. ”

“ Thus in the buffalo and the bear dances, skins of buffalo, with the head, skin, and horns attached, or the skins of bears, were put on, to make the dancers look like these animals.
The meaning and uses of dances differ greatly. The war dance, in which the men are painted as if for war and have about them everything that can make them think of war, is intended to influence them for battle. The music, songs, movements, prayers, and offerings all relate to the coming conflict. The scalp dance is in celebration of victory. ”

“ The war dance was probably the most elaborate in costume and other details, and of recent years the Indians have sometimes given public exhibitions of what purported to be war dances, but these performances, like everything else which they do from purely mercenary motives, are very poor imitations of the originals, and it is doubtful if they have ever allowed a genuine war dance to be witnessed by white men. ”

“ If we consider the occasions when a savage dances, it will soon appear that it is not only after a battle or a hunt that he dances in order to commemorate it, but before. Once the commemorative dance has got abstracted or generalized it becomes material for the magical dance, the dance pre-done. A tribe about to go to war will work itself up by a war dance; about to start out hunting they will catch their game in pantomime. ”

“ I think Charlevoix mistook another dance for the calumet dance, especially as he confesses they did him (the commandant) none of the honours which are mentioned. "I did not see the calumet presented to him, and there were no men holding the calumet in their hands."
The war dance, held either before or after a campaign, is their greatest dance. It is a dreadful spectacle, the object being to inspire terror in the spectators. No one takes a share in it, except the warriors themselves. They appear armed, as if going to battle. ”

“ After a council of the warriors had deliberated, and had prepared for the warpath, the dance would be started. In this dance there is the usual singing led by the warriors and accompanied with the beating of the "esadadene," but the dancing is more violent, and yells and war whoops sometimes almost drown the music. Only warriors participated in this dance. ”

“ In a sense, all primitive music may be considered as dance music. All primitive songs were accompanied by gestures or dances and, naturally, there was no dance without its accompanying music. The head-hunting Dyaks of Borneo have a dance in which the gestures indicate the cutting off of heads. The North American Indians have a scalp dance, celebrating the victorious exploits of a war [Pg 13] party. The Maoris of New Zealand have a war dance in which all thrust out their tongues at once, a gesture which may indicate contempt of the enemy. ”

“ The regularity of their movements is truly astonishing; and the song, which always accompanies a dance, is most harmonious. They soon work themselves up to a pitch of frenzy; the distortions of their face and body are truly dreadful, and fill the mind with horror. Love and war are the subjects of their songs and dances; but the details of the latter passion are by far the most popular among them. I was astonished to find that their women mixed in the dance indiscriminately with the men, and went through all those horrid gestures with seemingly as much pleasure as the warriors themselves. ”

“ Every one has heard of the war dance, the medicine dance, the wabeno dance, the dance of honour (generally called the begging dance,) and various others, each of which has its appropriate movements, its air, and its words. There is no feast, and no religious ceremony, among them, which is not attended with dancing and songs. Thanks are thus expressed for success in hunting, for triumphs in war, and for ordinary providential cares. ”

“ Dancing taught primitive men to move in compact bodies without confusion, and especially without getting so bunched together that they could not use their weapons.
To-day the true war-dance only persists among us in the form of military marchings, but the other primitive6 dances have left numerous descendants of all kinds and degrees, down to the modern tango. Among these non-military dances the survival value, apart from the healthy exercise which they provided and their general disciplinary effects, worked through the agency of sexual selection. ”

“ Let the Sun Men come!
Hoh! Hoh! Hoh!
We will kill the Sun Men when they come!
{People}
(As they join in the war dance.)
Hoh! Hoh! Hoh!
Let the Sun Men come!
Hoh! Hoh! Hoh!
We will kill the Sun Men when they come.
(The dance grows wilder, the Shaman and
War Chief encouraging it, while Red
Cloud and Dew-Woman stand sadly at
a distance.)
(Rifle shots ring out from every side. Up
the hillside appear Sun Men firing rifles.
The Nishinam reel to death from their
dancing.) ”

“ When the Indians held their tea-dances or pow-wows in times of peace, the squaws and children joined in, and it was a very amusing sight to watch them. We often went three miles to look at a tea-dance, and I found it as attractive and interesting as a big circus would be to the children of a civilized place. But I had then no idea of the war-dance. They differ in every respect. No fire-arms are used at the tea-dance, and the guns and tomahawks and knives play the principal part in the war dance. ”

“ There was unremitted firing and war-whooping, the music of chanting and of the pebbled gourd going all the while. At length the fighters joined in procession, dancing a triumphal dance around the mound, plunging thence headlong into the sacred square and all around it, and then scampering around the outside, and pouring back to the battle square ”