shout, then the men standing behind them move away about twenty paces, swing their clubs and spears menacingly above their heads and, in this defiant position, gradually approach the singing and drumming women with an admirable hop, or rather trembling, and a terrible shout. When they first approach, finer voices can be heard; But as they get closer, the voices become louder and louder, until, when they are close to the women, the old strong men raise a roar ( 056 ) as if heaven and earth were to perish; The sounds they make are completely meaningless, broken off briefly and repeated quickly one after the other, so that there is a balance between them and the trembling short footsteps. When the roar is at its strongest, the men stop briefly, while the women continue, go back as far as before and approach again in exactly the same way. When they have repeated this three or four times, there is a quarter or half-hour rest during which they joke with each other, or make less strenuous movements, or even beg something from those around them. When they find that they have recovered long enough, it starts again and so on, until late into the night.

So what do these dances mean? If one looks at their position, movement and shouting, as well as the waving of their weapons, one must be inclined to believe that they are intended to represent an attack or a challenge from the enemy and are therefore a kind of military exercise; only then the women in front are in the way; because one would think that they would prefer to have them behind them to protect them from the enemy, like the old Germans; or one would have to assume that they allowed them to lie down in front of them in order to let their presence and the view of their helplessness and defenselessness inspire them to greater rage and more ardent revenge. Others have attributed a religious meaning to these dances and have wanted to derive a veneration of the moon from the fact that they usually take place at the time of the full moon; but since there is no other trace of religious ( 057 ) worship among them, this assumption is probably unfounded, and it seems that they chose the time of the full moon simply because of the bright and cheerful nights, just as they keep a larger fire than usual on such an evening for the sake of the light.

November 2nd, 1838.
Since this evening we heard a noise similar to yesterday's, we suspected a new dance among the natives and went to them. Of course we didn't find what we expected; but something that richly compensated us for the effort of the long walk. They had a dance today, or a game, whatever you want to call it, somewhat similar to yesterday's, which they called Kuri*, and which seemed to be a preparation for the actual dance, saying that the latter, called Parlte* by them, would follow it. When we arrived, everything was already in full swing; We first noticed a row of men sitting, banging their clubs together in rhythm and singing a few words that were repeated over and over again; then in front of them sat a bunch of men who were already exhausted. Finally behind them were the dancers. Three men, completely naked, their faces painted with chalk, their bodies and chests adorned with two strips of chalk that ended at the top of their shoulders like a swallowtail,