Democratic Sentinel, Volume 19, Number 45, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 15 November 1895 — An African Dance. [ARTICLE]

An African Dance.

The dances consisted chiefly of rows of men in line, holding their knobkerries upright in one hand, and slowly lifting each foot alternately as high as possible, and bringing it down flat on the Bole with a thuqip that made one’s own soles ache to see it. This was accompanied by a monotonous chant of some eight or ten notes repeated endlessly with the same words. One of these phrases, we are told, was to the effect that as they had no corn that year to make beer, the. white man should give it to them. Another was in praise of the “good old times;” but, to judge by the singing, these much-vaunted times must have been lugubrious enough to make the old cow die on the spot. The women danced in a group by themselves, several' of them with their babies tied on their backs, the little things taking the jogs and shakes to which they were subjected with absolute equanimity. Both men and women were dressed in a variety Of garments, from a suit of tweeds to a mere little piece of skin hanging from the waisf. Brass anklets nnd bracelets were frequent, nnd every native carries a snuff'box, either round the neck or waist or stuck in his ear. For this latter position empty cartridge cases are in much request. They are stuck through a slit in the lobe of the ear.