Page:The Native Tribes of South Australia (1879).djvu/325

FIGHTS. 243 fall back to the rear. Each dance does not last above ten minutes, the motions of the body being so violent as to completely exhaust them in a short time. The women, though commonly engaged in singing, do not all join in the dance—never more than two or three at a time; nor are their jumps and motions of the arms so violent and grotesque as those of the men. They also keep their cloaks modestly about their persons, while the men are invariably in a state of nudity. But even this slight participation on the part of the fair sex never fails to heighten the amusement and increase the exertions of the men. At the conclusion of the dancing, the men, after resting some time at about forty yards distance from the singers, advance, dancing one by one, when one of the women meets each halfway, and accompanies him dancing to the singers, where the man sits down. At the point where the two meet, the male dancer makes a short pause stamping with one foot several times on the ground, probably by way of compliment to the lady, after which they both jump away together. These evening amusements are often kept up to a late hour, frequently long after midnight, particularly if a great number are collected, or if two different tribes meet, when they will do their best to entertain each other with the number and variety of their songs and skill in performing. Happiness and joyous pleasure are on such occasions depicted on every face, and one could scarcely believe that those goodhumoured faces could ever be distorted with expressions of violent rage, or that gentle deportment changed into passionate frenzy; yet such is sometimes the case, especially during the hot season, when they evince a degree of irritability that during the dull winter months one would think their natures strangers to. FIGHTS. Their fights may be properly divided into two classes, namely, those that arise suddenly and from trivial causes, and those that are premeditated, having some real or fancied grievance for their foundation. Although the behaviour of the natives towards each other is in general characterised by a good deal of courtesy and