Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 47.djvu/379

for tho purpose of yielding æsthetic pleasures. Among the Hebrews this development had taken place in the time of Herod, when the daughter of Herodias delighted him by her dancing; and a like development is shown at the present day throughout India, where troops of bayaderes are appendages of courts.

 

That laudatory dancing and singing before the visible ruler are associated with like observances before the invisible ruler, the Hebrews have shown us. To the case of the prophetess Miriam and her companions, may be added the case of David dancing before the ark. Hence we shall not be surprised to find such facts among other semi-civilized peoples. Markham, describing a Puharrie festival, and saying of a certain receptacle that "in it the Deity is supposed to dwell," adds that "upon this occasion the deptha, or ark, is brought forth with much solemnity, and the people decked out with flowers and ears of corn dance around it." In an account of the Bhils we read, concerning a class of men called Barwás who are votaries of the hill-gods, that

"Their powers are, however, dormant, till they are excited by music; and for this reason, they have a class of musicians connected with them, who are proficient in numerous songs in praise of the hill-deities. When the recitation of these songs has kindled the spark of spiritual fire, they begin to dance with frantic gestures."

An analogous use of dancing occurs in Abyssinia. The duties of priests "consist in reading the prayers, chanting, administering the sacrament, and dancing; the latter being indulged in during religious processions." That the dancing is in this case imported into the quasi-Christian religion by adoption from some previous religion (a like adoption being common with Roman Catholic missionaries) is a conclusion supported by an instance from a remote region. Describing the usages of the Pueblos, Lummis says:—

"The cachinas or sacred dances which were in vogue before Columbus, still survive; but now they are applied to the festivals of the Church, and are presumed to be as grateful to Tata Dios as to the Sun."

But the way in which singing and dancing before the visible ruler differentiate into singing and dancing before the ruler no longer visible, is best seen in the early records of civilized races. To the above illustrations furnished by Hebrew history may be added various others. Thus I Samuel x, 5, tells of "a company of prophets coming down from the high place with a psaltery, and a tabret, and a pipe, and a harp before them;" and, according to some translators, dancing and singing. Again in I Chronicles ix, 33, we read of certain Levites that "these are the singers, chief of the fathers of the Levites." And in Psalm cxlix, there is the ex-