very great and their
energy almost spasmodic, leaving the ground frequently three feet
as they spring into the air. At some of their festivals their
dancing is carried to such an extent that I have seen a young
fellow's muscles quiver from head to foot and his jaws tremble
without any apparent ability on his part to control them, until,
foaming at the mouth and with his eyes rolling, he falls in a
paroxysm upon the ground, to be carried off by his companions."
The writer adds significantly that this dancing "would seem to
emanate from a species of voluptuousness." (Mrs. French-Sheldon,
"Customs among the Natives of East Africa," _Journal of the
Anthropological Institute_, vol. xxi, May, 1892, pp. 366-67.) It
may be added that among the Suaheli dances are intimately
associated with weddings; the Suaheli dances have been minutely
described by Velten (_Sitten und Gebraueche der Suaheli_, pp.
144-175). Among the Akamba of British East Africa, also,
according to H.R. Tate (_Journal of the Anthropological
Institute_, Jan.-June, 1904, p. 137), the dances are followed by
connection between the young men and girls, approved of by the
parents.

The dances of the Faroe Islanders have been described by Raymond
Pilet ("Rapport sur une Mission en Islande et aux lies Feroe,"
_Nouvelles Archives des Missions Scientifiques_, tome vii, 1897,
p. 285). These dances, which are entirely decorous, include
poetry, music, and much mimicry, especially of battle. They
sometimes last for two consecutive days and nights. "The dance is
simply a permitted and discreet method by which the young men may
court the young girls. The islander enters the circle and places
himself beside the girl to whom he desires to show his affection;
if he meets with her approval she stays and continues to dance at
his side; if not, she leaves the circle and appears later at
another spot."

Pitre (_Usi, etc., del Popolo Siciliano_, vol. ii, p. 24, as
quoted in Marro's _Puberta_) states that in Sicily the youth who
wishes to marry seeks to give some public proof of his valor and
to show himself off. In Chiaramonte, in evidence of his virile
force, he bears in procession the standard of some confraternity,
a high and richly adorned standard which makes its staff bend to
a semicircle, of such enormous weight that the bear