My Friends the Savages Part 26

They will take two bamboo canes of six, eight or more inches in diameter, being careful to select a male and female reed. These they beat violently one against the other, the result being a deep note with prolonged vibrations which awake the forest echoes but not the old people and the children who are sleeping.

There is also the _krob_ a very primitive kind of lyre that consists of a short but stout piece of bamboo on which two vegetable fibres are tightly drawn. The plectrum used by the player is equally primitive being a fish-bone, a thorn or a bit of wood. The sound caused by grating the two strings is more harmonious than one might suppose.

But the Sakais possess besides a wind instrument that claims more study both in the making and the playing.

It belongs to the flute family and, of course, is made of bamboo. Like all its brothers in the world it is open at one end, with three or four holes on the top side.

Before playing it the performer carefully stops up one of his nostrils with leaves and then applies the other to the first hole into which he gently blows with his nose. From the instrument issues a sweet, melancholy note. By leaving all the holes open a clear _sol_ (G) is obtained; by shutting them all a _mi bemolle_ (E flat); the first hole gives the note _mi_ (E) and the second _fa_ (F).

The _ciniloi_[15] (for so it is called) is not artistic to the eye and loses all its poetry when one sees its owner blowing his nose into it but the notes emanating from it breathe a vague sense of melody and sadness not entirely unpleasant.

Some of the Sakais are quite masters of this instrument and the women too prefer it to the _krob_. They seem to find extreme delight in sending forth those long sustained and plaintive sounds as though lulled by a dream, or absorbed in some pathetic thought.

On festive occasions when the solemnity of the entertainment increases in proportion to the noise made, there is a full orchestra. The choruses bawl, the bamboos deafen one with their loud noise like that of huge wooden bells, the _krobs_ sob desperately at the way they are treated by the plectrum, the _ciniloi_ whistles and laments, and all without any fixed measure of time or modulation of tones, in a confusion of sounds so discordant as to recall a very, very faint echo of the infernal nocturnal concerts of the forest.

The orchestra prompt and the singing begun the female dancers advance by twos and threes into the open s.p.a.ce confined by palm leaves. Their features are incognizable so disfigured are they with stripes and daubs in red, white, black and sometimes yellow.

Their ball costume is exceedingly simple. They just lay aside the girdle of beauty or chast.i.ty which they ordinarily wear and present themselves to the public as Eve did to Adam; or like so many brown-skinned Venuses with variegated masks.

They are however, profusely adorned with flowers.

The first time I saw a similar sight I was struck with surprise but then remembering the cut of some of the evening dresses worn by our Society ladies I came to the conclusion that comparing the clothes with which the latter and the Sakai women are habitually covered there was nothing to be said about the difference made in the toilet on grand and festive occasions.

But to return to the dancers. They hold in their right hands a bunch of palm leaves and begin their performance with curtsies, skips and the contortions I have spoken of; then follows an undulating movement of the flanks as they hurry forward, something in the same position as "cake-walk" dancers, lightly beating the leaves in their hand against others of the same kind they have fastened on their right hip.

The dance is a continual exercise of the joints and muscles, but its swaying motion is not without grace and displays all the seductive beauty of the girls whose freshness has not been destroyed by love and maternity.

A little innocent vanity may be found in this Terpich.o.r.ean compet.i.tion because every movement, every jump and contortion receive the greatest attention and are followed by admiration and applause, when worthy of the demonstration, from those who have danced before or have to do so afterwards.

The men sometimes take an active part in the dance but their steps and their movements are always the same as the women's.

The strange thing is that they take the serpent as their model of gracefulness and elegance and seek to copy as closely as possible the flexibility of its body and the gliding motion peculiar to that reptile.

A malignant person would perhaps find here the subject of a witty sarcasm thinking that in the forest serpents in the guise of women dance alone but with us, if we wish to dance at all, we are obliged to embrace them!

These dances will often last until dawn, just as it is at our own evening parties.

Neither song, nor dance, nor the sound of those primitive instruments ever take the character of a religious demonstration.

Only on the nights enlivened by bright moonlight, whilst dancing in the open air, their impromptu songs contain a greeting to the s.h.i.+ning orb that presides over their festivity and with its silvery rays enhances its enjoyment. But in this there is nothing to suggest a special cult.

[Ill.u.s.tration: A trio for Sakai instruments.

_p._ 178.]

Over yonder they do not dance with any intention of intrigue in their minds, or with the pretext and hope of meeting young persons of opposite s.e.xes in order to kindle the fatal spark that will lead them to matrimony; there they dance for the pure pleasure of dancing, for sincere, hearty enjoyment without any other scope or desire, because, as I mention in another place, the young men and maidens of the same village being all relations, marriage is not permitted between them; the wives must be chosen from a different tribe. This wise custom was evidently established to exclude consanguineous unions (with their degenerating consequences) and perhaps also to consolidate the brotherly ties between people of the same race.

I think if Mantegazza had ever been present at one of these dances of the Sakai girls, he would have added another beautiful page to his _estasi umane_ ("Human Ecstasies") because at these little festivals, whether they are held in the hut or outside, one never sees pouting faces, frowning brows or any other indication of preoccupation or pa.s.sion. Everybody is merry and their delight can be read upon their countenances (notwithstanding the frightful way they are besmeared with paint), and s.h.i.+nes in their eyes; happy are the women who blow into the flute or grate the _krob_ or beat the bamboo sticks; happy are the girls that dance; happy are the youths who join in the chorus. It is an innocent amus.e.m.e.nt for innocent souls.

To finish off this chapter I here give a very free translation of a song, whose words I was able to catch and remember, which came from the lips of my dear friends upon my returning among them after a long absence:

"O'er mountains and rivers you have pa.s.sed to come amongst us as a friend, as a friend who will not hurt us, and behold we are here to meet you bearing with us all that the forest has yielded us to-day.

"The clear and beautiful mountain announced the good news and now you have returned to us who rejoice at seeing you again".

The form was not so but I have given the thought exactly, a thought, as you see, full of affection and with a very faint perfume of poetry about it. You will not accuse me, therefore, of being too optimistic when I affirm that the Sakai, in spite of his semblance to a wild man of the bush, savage, suspicious and superst.i.tious as he is, is susceptible of rapid intellectual progress whenever the right means are used in his favour, and towards that end.

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote 15: p.r.o.nounced _chinneloy_--_Translator's Note._]

CHAPTER XIV.

The beliefs and superst.i.tions of the Sakais--Metempsychosis--The Evil Spirit--Superst.i.tion among savages and ignorance among civilized people--The two sources of life--The wind --The ALa priest and physician--The scientific vigil--Venerable imposture!-- TENAC and CINTOK[16]--Therapeutic torture--Contagion--A Sakai's death--The deserted village--Mourning--Births--Fire--Intellectual darkness--The Sakais and Islamism.

The good notary Chirichillo, born in the fervid fancy of Ippolito Nievo firmly believed that the many tribulations of his modest life would be compensated one day by G.o.d, and that this recompense would be a second birth, when he would relive in another person, under another name and under a luckier star.

Although less learned and although they have but a vague intuition of the idea relating to the soul immortality, the Sakais do not refuse the theory of reward or punishment hereafter. According to them the spirit freed from the body wanders about in the air and often, in a transitory way, retakes a corporal form in the shape of certain animals (more especially the tiger, for which reason the terrible beast is respected as almost sacred by them) or it takes refuge in certain herbs which thus acquist healing properties.

In no case will a Sakai willingly kill, wound or lay a trap for the animals he thinks consecrated by the indwelling of a spirit, this is so true that even whilst preparing one of the usual traps for catching big game he will turn himself towards the thickest part of the forest and murmur, this is not for thee to warn the tiger to be on his guard. And should one happen to be caught it causes real grief to the Sakai who you may be sure would give it back its liberty at once if he had not found it dead or did not fear to be killed himself as soon as it was free. The Sakai does not believe in the natural death of a person but attributes the decease to the spell of the Evil Spirit who is continually on the watch to play his wicked tricks. So ready is he to do harm that he even slips into the little holes made in their darts thus carrying death where they strike, otherwise the poison would not have the force to kill.

This is the superst.i.tion that inspires every sort of terror in the inhabitants of the jungle and which renders it so difficult to approach them and so dangerous to disturb the serenity of their simple minds. The wind, the thunder-storms, the violent hurricanes that frequently invade the forest, bringing destruction and fear in their course are the vehicles used by this Evil Spirit to declare open warfare against the frightened savages.

When the clouds begin to gather thick and ominously, and first with a distant roar and then with the fury and the voice of a hurricane, the wind sweeps fiercely on, howling and whistling over the great green sea that is quickly strewn with wreckage; when the colossal champions of the forest are struck by lightning and the fall of their huge branches and gigantic trunks increase the general uproar, whilst the boom of Heaven's artillery thunders around their huts, then the trembling Sakais throng together. They paint themselves in a manner to scare the devil himself (which is however their intention) and shoot out from their blow-pipes a volley of poisoned arrows, directed against the tumultuous messengers of the awful Being they fear; the women, keeping their children close at their side as if to defend them, throw pieces of burning wood into the air, and beat their big bamboo sticks till the noise is insupportable, at the same time screaming to the wind:

Go away and leave us alone! We have not harmed thee, so do not harm us!.

So they implore and imprecate, turning themselves into the ugliest and fiercest creatures they can, to frighten the evil spirits that they believe have come against them on the outspread wings of the storm.

To the wild cries, arrow shots and loud noise of the bamboos, the mothers add an exorcism. They burn locks of their little ones' hair and disperse the ashes to the wind whilst the _Ala_ energetically spits.

And in civilized Italy is there not a superst.i.tion very like this of the poor savages? I refer to the odd custom still observed in the country, or at least in some of the villages (and which not so very long ago was put into practice also in towns) of trying to arrest a heavy thunder storm, by the tocsin, the deep noted ringing increasing the general alarm amongst the timid of the place. The women too, will go to the door and rattle together the shovel and tongs just as their Sakai sisters beat their bamboos, and olive branches (that previously have received the priest's benediction) are burnt with incense that the smoke may rise up to appease the fury of the elements just as over there locks of the children's hair are burnt for the same purpose.

These are superst.i.tions that vary a little in form but are exactly equivalent in the substance and show how much remains in us of primitive ignorance and how our boasted civilization is still bound to the antique customs and childish beliefs of the uncivilized, over whom we sing the glory of our own triumph.

The Sakais also admit the existence of a Good Spirit but precisely because he is good, so much so as never to reveal himself, they do not deem it necessary to bother him. To the Good Spirit the Sakais oppose in their mind, the Evil Spirit exercising his empire upon the souls of their ancestors. To him they make many and different exorcisms and supplications, with the hope not to be molested by him after death if they keep good. Such a belief may be considered as a kind of demonclatry.