s
apparently unfriendly attitude of refusing to take their food. But I
feared to seem even to approve of any act of devil-worship, or to
confirm them in it, being there to discourage all such scenes, and to
lead them to acknowledge only the true God. Yet all the time I felt this
qualm,--that it might have been better to eat food with men who
acknowledged some God and asked his blessing, than with those white
Heathens at home, who asked the blessing of no God, nor thanked Him--in
this worse than the dog which licks the hand that feeds it! Nowar and
Nerwangi explained in great orations what I meant, and how I wished all
to be divided amongst the assembled Tribes to show my love. With this,
all seemed highly satisfied.

Heathen dances were now entered upon, their paint and feathers and
ornaments adding to the wildness of the scene. The men seemed to dance
in an inside ring, and the women in an outside ring, at a considerable
distance from each other. Music was supplied by singing and clapping of
hands. The order was perfect, and the figures highly intricate. But I
have never been able to associate dancing with things lovely and of good
report! After the dancing, all retired to the bush; and a kind of sham
fight then followed on the public cleared ground. A host of painted
savages rushed in and took possession with songs and shoutings. From the
bush, on the opposite side, the chanting of women was heard in the
distance, louder and louder as they approached. Snatching from a burning
fire flaming sticks, they rushed on the men with these, beating them and
throwing burning pieces of wood among them, till with deafening yells
amongst themselves and amidst shouts of laughter from the crowd, they
drove them from the space, and danced thereon and sang a song of
victory. The dancing and fighting, the naked painted figures, and the
constant yells and shoutings gave one a weird sensation, and suggested
strange ideas of Hell broken loose.

The final scene approached, when the men assisted their women to fill
all the allotted food into baskets to be carried home and eaten there;
for the different Tribes do not sit down together and eat together as we
would do; their coming together is for the purpose of exchanging and
dividing the food presented. And now they broke into friendly confusion,
and freely walked about mingling with each other; and a kind of savage
rehearsal of Jonathan and David took place. They stripped themselves of
the