The most comical dance in which they all joined—­that is all the dancers—­was one in which they stood on tiptoe, with knees bent and shaking together as if with fear, then giving forth a sort of hissing noise, through fiercely clenched teeth, they quickly advanced in three or four lines and retired trotting backwards.  This ended with a prolonged howl and shrieks of laughter.  The energy with which they dance is extraordinary—­shaking their spears and grunting, they advance with knees raised, like high-stepping horses, until the thigh is almost horizontal, now one leg now the other, with a will, and then one, two, down come the feet together with a thud, the dancers striking their spears in the ground, growling out savagely a sound that I can only express as “woomph, woomph”—­with what a smack their flat feet meet the ground, and what a shrieking yell goes up from all throats as they stop!

To enliven the performance they use flat carved sticks, some eight inches long, and of a pointed oval shape.  Through a hole in one point they thread a string, with which the stick is rapidly swung round, making a booming noise—­“Bull-roarers” is the general white-fellows’ name for them.  Amongst some native prisoners brought in from the Sturt I saw a primitive wooden horn, on which a sort of blast could be blown.  No doubt this, too, has its place in their performances.

I am told they keep up these corroborees as long as three days and nights, though certainly not dancing all the time.  Probably the stick clapping is kept up by relays of performers.  I have heard the chant go on all one night and well into the next day, with hardly a break.

Hall’s Creek is a great place for corroborees, for there are gathered together boys from all parts of Central Australia, Northern Territory, and Queensland, brought by coastal overlanders.  These boys all know different chants and dances, and are consequently in great request at the local black-fellows’ evening parties.  Warri told me he had learnt several new songs; however, they appeared to my evidently untrained ear to be all exactly alike.

We were to have had a very swell festival at Christmas, but it somehow fell through.  I fancy the blacks were not given sufficient notice.

The blacks, in addition to these simple festive gatherings, have solemn dances for the purpose of promoting the growth of edible seeds and roots, of increasing the rainfall, or the numbers of the animals and reptiles on which they feed.  But more important still are those connected with their barbarous, but sacred, rites and ceremonials.

CHAPTER XVIII

PREPARATIONS FOR THE RETURN JOURNEY