But more often they go on all night. Mr. Ball mentions their dance
as follows: [365] "The Oraon dance was distinct from any I had seen
by the Santals or other races. The girls, carefully arranged in lines
by sizes, with the tallest at one end and the smallest at the other,
firmly grasp one another's hands, and the whole movements are so
perfectly in concert that they spring about with as much agility
as could a single individual." Father Dehon gives the following
interesting notice of their social customs: "The Oraons are very
sociable beings, and like to enjoy life together. They are paying
visits or _pahis_ to one another nearly the whole year round. In these
the _handia_ (beer-jar) always plays a great part. Any man who would
presume to receive visitors without offering them a _handia_ would be
hooted and insulted by his guests, who would find a sympathising echo
from all the people of the village. One may say that from the time of
the new rice at the end of September to the end of the marriage feast
or till March there is a continual coming and going of visitors. For a
marriage feast forty _handias_ are prepared by the groom's father, and
all the people of the village who can afford it supply one also. Each
_handia_ gives about three gallons of rice-beer, so that in one day and
a half, in a village of thirty houses, about 200 gallons of rice-beer
are despatched. The Oraons are famous for their dances. They delight
in spending the whole night from sunset till morning in this most
exciting amusement, and in the dancing season they go from village to
village. They get, as it were, intoxicated with the music, and there is
never any slackening of the pace. On the contrary, the evolutions seem
to increase till very early in the morning, and it sometimes happens
that one of the dancers shoots off rapidly from the gyrating group, and
speeds away like a spent top, and, whirlwind-like, disappears through
paddy-fields and ditches till he falls entirely exhausted. Of course
it is the devil who has taken possession of him. One can well imagine
in what state the dancers are at the first crow of the cock, and when
'_L'aurore avec ses doigts de rose entr'ouvre les portes de l'orient,_'
she finds the girls straggling home one by one, dishevelled, _traînant
l'aile_, too tired even to enjoy the company of the boys, who remain
behind in small groups, still sounding their tom-toms at intervals
as if sorry that the performance was so soon over. And, wonderful to
say and incredible to witness, they will go straight to the stalls,
yoke their bullocks, and work the whole morning with the same spirit
and cheerfulness as if they had spent the whole night in refreshing
sleep. At eleven o'clock they come home, eat their meal, and stretched
out in the verandah sleep like logs until two, when poked and kicked
about unmercifully by the people of the house, they reluctantly get
up with heavy eyes and weary limbs to resume their work."