The _Rambang_--Shoka music--Love-songs--Doleful singing--Abrupt
ending--Solos--Smoking--When marriage is contemplated--The
_Delang_--Adultery--Punishment.
[Illustration: MOTEMA, A SHOKA BEAUTY]
ONE Shoka institution, surprising in a primitive people, but
nevertheless, to my way of thinking, eminently sensible and advantageous,
is the Rambang, a meeting-place or club where girls and young men come
together at night, for the sake of better acquaintance, prior to entering
into matrimony. Each village possesses one or more institutions of this
kind, and they are indiscriminately patronised by all well-to-do people,
who recognise the institution as a sound basis on which marriage can be
arranged. The Rambang houses are either in the village itself, or half
way between one village and the next, the young women of one village thus
entering into amicable relations with the young men of the other and
_vice versâ_. I visited many of these in company with Shokas, and found
them very interesting. Round a big fire in the centre of the room men and
women sat in couples, spinning wool and chatting merrily, for everything
appeared decorous and cheerful. With the small hours of the morning, they
seemed to become more sentimental, and began singing songs without
instrumental accompaniment, the rise and fall of the voices sounding
weird and haunting to a degree. The Shoka men and women possess soft,
musical voices, and the sounds which they utter are not simply a series
of notes emitted through the throat, but, as it were, the vibration of
impressions coming from the heart, and transmitted by means of their
voices to others. Eastern in its character, the Shoka music is pleasing
to the Western ear, not because it possesses quick progressions,
flourishes, or any elaborate technicalities, but because it conveys the
impression of reality and feeling. The responsive duets, sung by a young
man and answered by a girl, pleased me most. All their songs are
plaintive, and contain modulations of the voice so mysteriously charming
in effect, and so good in tone, that they really affect one profoundly.
They only sing when the mood takes them; never with a view to please
others, but always simply to give vent to their emotions. Their
love-songs generally open with a sentimental recitative, and then change
into actual singing, with frequent modulations from one key into another.
The time is irregular, and though certain rhythmical peculiarities recur
constantly, yet each performer gives to what he sings so strong a
personality of execution as to make it almost an individual composition.
Any one hearing Shokas sing for the first time would imagine that each
singer was improvising as he went along, but on closer comparison it will
be found that musical phrases, certain favourite passages and modulations
in the voice, constantly recur not only in each song, but in all songs.
They seem all of them based on the same doleful tune, probably a very
ancient one, and only the different time in which it is given, and the
eccentricities of the singer, give it a separate and special character.
One characteristic of Shoka songs--as of so many other Oriental tunes--is
that they have no rounded ending, and this, to my ears, rather spoiled
them. A similar abrupt break is a feature of their dances and their
drum-beating. The song suddenly stops in the middle of the air with a
curious grating sound of the voice, and I could not obtain any entirely
satisfactory explanation of this: the only answer given me was that the
singer could not go on for ever, and that as long as he stopped it did
not matter how he did it. Further, they considered an abrupt ending most
suitable to music (or dancing), as it immediately brought you back to
your normal state, should your mind have been carried away. One pleasant
feature was that their songs were never sung in a loud tone of voice, nor
did they aim at notes too high or too low for their voices, but kept
themselves well within their compass.
[Illustration: ON THE WAY TO THE RAMBANG]
[Illustration: SHOKA EARRINGS]
The only difference between solos given by men, and those sung by women,
was that the former showed more plaintiveness and sentimentality, and
greater mutability of thought, whereas the latter were more uniform, more
lively, and less imaginative in their representation of feelings. The
words of the love-songs, nearly always _impromptu_, can hardly be set
down in these pages. From our standard of morality, and away from their
own special surroundings, they might seem almost lewd, while in their
place they certainly did not impress me as offensive. When singing, the
Shokas usually raise the end of their white shawl or dress, and hold it
by the side of the head.
[Illustration: SILVER EARRINGS OF TIBETAN ORIGIN, WITH CORAL BEADS]
Smoking was general, each couple sharing the same pipe. A few burning
sticks of pine stuck in the rough wall formed the only illumination, save
the fire in the centre of the room slowly burning out. Signs of
sleepiness became evident as morning came, and soon they all retired in
couples, and went to sleep in their clothes on a soft layer of straw and
grass. There they slept peacefully in a row, and I retraced my steps to
my diggings amidst a deafening barking of pariah dogs. At these
gatherings every Shoka girl regularly meets with young men, and while she
entertains the idea of selecting among them a suitable partner for life,
she also does a considerable quantity of work with her spinning-wheel.
Eventually, when a couple consider marriage advisable, the young man,
dressed in his best clothes, proceeds to the house of his intended
father-in-law, carrying with him a pot of _chökti_ (wine), dried fruit,
_ghur_ (sweet paste), _miseri_ (sugar-candy), and grilled grain. If the
bridegroom is considered a suitable match, the parents of the girl
receive the young man with due consideration, and partake heartily of the
food and drink proffered by him. The marriage is there and then arranged,
the bridegroom further disbursing to the father a sum of not less than
five rupees and not more than one hundred. This is the etiquette of good
Shoka society, and of all people who can afford it, the payment being
called "milk-money," or money equivalent to the sum spent by the girl's
relations in bringing her up. The marriage ceremony is simple enough. A
cake called _Delang_ is baked, of which the friends of the two families
partake. If either the bridegroom or bride refuses to eat a share of the
cake, the marriage is broken off; if they both eat some of the cake, and
later any dissension arises between them, all those who assisted at the
function are called as witnesses that the marriage took place. Often even
this primitive ceremony of eating cake is dispensed with, and Shoka
marriages begin and continue as happy and faithful unions, without any
special form of service or rite to solemnise the tie.
[Illustration: SHOKA WOMAN WEAVING]
They not only visit adultery on the guilty man himself by beating him,
but the men proceed _en masse_ to the house of his parents and denude it
of all furniture, stores of grain, and merchandise. They confiscate the
sheep, goats, yaks, and all their valuable saddles and loads, and present
the whole proceeds to the man whose wife has been seduced--a recompense
for the shame suffered. Frequently the unfortunate and innocent relations
of the evil-doer are bound and even beaten to death by the villagers.
These severe measures are resorted to in order to maintain a high
standard of morality and honour, and there is little doubt that,
primitive as these methods may seem, the good results obtained more than
justify them. There are very few illegitimate births, with the exception
of occasional Rambang children, and their arrival is a matter of such
disgrace that they cannot be looked upon as seriously discrediting the
social value of the Rambang.
[Illustration: RAMBANG GIRLS WITH ORNAMENTS]