First attempts at industry--The story of a hat--Multiplicity--
Primitive arts--Sakai music--Songs--Instruments--Dances--Ball
dresses--Serpentine gracefulness--An unpublished Sakai song.
Primitive, like their language and their agriculture, are also Art and
Industry among the Sakais.
They make blowpipes, arrows and quivers from bamboo, strings from
twisted vegetable fibres, ear-rings and ornamental combs for the women.
Now, under my direction, they have begun to plait mats with dried
grasses, as well as bags and even hats, using for the latter the fibrous
part of the pandanus, and copying one of Panama which I gave them as a
model. I cannot give an estimate of the time and patience I spent over
this new branch of industry.
The first time I mentioned such a thing to the women I had the
unenviable success of making them laugh heartily. And I laughed with
them, remarking however, that as they were so good and clever they would
have no difficulty in accomplishing the feat if they would only set
themselves to try.
Vanity is the great spring of a woman's soul that cannot resist the
charm of flattery. This is proved by History from the time of Eve to our
days and I myself proved it when I again spoke on the subject of hats.
The laughter was not so loud and soon ceased altogether. At last the
women answered me, with an annoyed and discontented air, that my
insistance vexed them. Then I knew that the fortress was about to
capitulate and re-doubled my attacks.
The day of surrender was near.
A girl, accompanied by a group of inquisitive, mocking companions,
presented herself at my hut bringing with her something in the shape of
a hat which was meant to be an imitation of mine. It was full of knots,
puckers and other defects.
The little artist was very confused and mortified but I praised her work
a great deal and after showing her the mistakes she had made I gave her
several bead-necklaces.
In a few days the hats multiplied. The other girls and the women, seeing
the presents I had given their companion, felt offended and devoted
themselves with fury to the manufacture of the head-covering I desired,
improving the form so much as to obtain an exact copy of the pattern
one.
When some were finished they brought them to me and throwing them on the
ground with a gesture of scorn cried:
"There! take your hats!". But a generous distribution of beads soon made
their good-temper return.
Thus I was able to start this new industry by flattering the vanity of
the Sakai females ("oh, Vanity, thy name is Woman" even among the
savages) and the goods produced, after having been awarded a silver
medal and a diploma at Penang were the object of general admiration at
the Milan Exhibition of 1906.
It is some time now that I have got the men to work in iron. I provide
them with the raw material and it is really a wonder to see how well
they manage to make knives without possessing any of the tools used in
the trade.
When they understood the necessity of a very fierce fire for reducing
the metal into such a state as to enable them to make it take the
wished-for form, they attempted to put together a sort of bellows and at
length succeeded in the following way.
At the bottom of a very big piece of bamboo, they cut a hole into which
they inserted a smaller one, joining and fixing them together with gum
that the air might not escape from the wrong part. Then at the extremity
of a thick stick they fastened a bunch of leaves and grasses large
enough to pass with difficulty into the bamboo tube. By working this as
a piston the air was expelled from the lower bamboo cane and kindled a
bright fire.
After the iron has taken the form required, whilst it is still red-hot,
they throw it into a bluish-coloured mud which smells of sulphur and
leave it there to temper.
In fact the metal tempers and becomes very hard but I could not tell
anyone what properties this slimy earth contains or how the Sakais came
to know its value in connection with iron. I only know that they have to
dig very deep in the ground before getting at it, a thing that is not
either easy or agreeable owing to the lack of necessary implements.
Steel being a very scarce article amongst my good friends they have
learnt to make great economy with it using it solely for the blades of
the knives and for other purposes. They mix the two metals with
surprising skill.
This is the boldest and most intelligent step that the Sakais have made
as yet in the field of industry.
[Illustration: Dancing.
_p._ 176.]
* * * * *
That Art which expresses elevated thought and refinement of spirit, in
whatever form it manifests itself, is at its lowest ebb among the Sakais
and especially representative art, although it is curious to notice how
much more they prefer (I speak of the male sex) this latter to that of
sounds. Music may procure some moments of bliss to those who yield
themselves to its charms but it is transitory and, with them, leaves no
reminiscence for the performer or the listener; on the contrary
representative art remains and can also give satisfaction to the self
love of the artist. It is limited to some rough designs and still more
rough incisions on the blowpipes, quivers and the women's combs and
their earrings.
Bamboo is the principal material used in making their hunting
requisites, their personal ornaments and their domestic utensils.
The combs are large and their teeth vary from 2 to 4 in number. Across
them are carved, more or less deeply cut, various signs, some of an
angular form that display a pretty correct geometrical precision and
others in curved lines, all of which are intended by the several artists
to represent birds' heads, snakes or plants. Sometimes this intention is
expressed sufficiently clearly; at others there is need of
interpretation.
The plants reproduced in this way are always medicinal or those to which
superstition attributes some virtue, so that the primitive art is in a
great measure due to the desire of possessing an amulet.
The same designs are repeated on the ear-rings, blowpipes and quivers.
The Sakais are very proud of these incisions and he who has the most
upon his weapon enjoys a certain fame. As a natural consequence this
makes him somewhat jealous of his finely decorated cane, much more so
than he is of his wife, that for her part gives him no motive for
cultivating the yellow demon's acquaintance.
Up to the time I am writing the Sakais' artistic genius has not passed
this limit, unless we reckon the horrible paintings upon their faces and
bodies, but this branch of art--it may seem irreverent, though none the
less true, to say so--brings to the mind dainty toilet-rooms and cosy
boudoirs in other parts of the world, in the very heart of civilization,
where its devotees think to beautify (but often damage) Nature.
Oh! what a chorus of silvery voices are calling me too, a savage!
* * * * *
The Sakais like music but nearly always the notes are accompanied by a
dancing movement, sometimes lightly as if to mark the time, but at
others they kick their legs about so furiously, at the same time
twisting and writhing their bodies in such a strange series of
contortions that an uninitiated looker-on would surely receive the
impression that they were suffering from spasmodic pains in the stomach,
whereas in reality they are only imitating the wriggling of a serpent.
The woman is particularly fond of dancing and with it she measures the
cadencies of her own songs and gives point to the words themselves
whilst her companions repeat a sort of chorus which completes the
musical passage.
[Illustration: Playing the "ciniloi".
_p._ 178.]
It must not be thought, however, that song as it is known among the
Sakais is the melodious sound we are in the habit of considering as
such. With them it is an emission of notes, generally guttural ones
which are capriciously alternated without any variety of tune and which
in their integrity fail to express any musical thought.
The women sing with greater monotony, but more sweetly, than the men.
Often they join in groups singing and dancing, and this, I believe, is
the gayest moment of their lives and to this honest pleasure they will
abandon themselves with rapture, forgetting the fatigue of the day. Then
feminine coquetry triumphs before the other girls and the young men.
When night falls the air becomes cool, and even cold later on. Having
finished their evening meal the old folk and the children stretch
themselves out to sleep round the fire which is always kept lighted. The
women sit about weaving bags, mats and hats, their work illuminated by
flaring torches composed of sticks and leaves covered with the resin
found in the forest. To the extent permitted by their poor language they
chat and jest among themselves, laughing noisily the while.
The young men are scattered around preparing their arrows for the next
day's hunt, dipping them into the poisonous decoction when it is well
heated.
It is not long before work gets tedious to the girls. They jump up and
daub their faces in a grotesque manner. With palm leaves they mark out a
space of some yards square that has to be reserved for the dancers, and
then commences the women's song to which is soon added the stronger
voices of the men. At times the chorus is accompanied by an orchestra of
those instruments that the Sakais know how to play.
They will take two bamboo canes of six, eight or more inches in
diameter, being careful to select a male and female reed. These they
beat violently one against the other, the result being a deep note with
prolonged vibrations which awake the forest echoes but not the old
people and the children who are sleeping.
There is also the _krob_ a very primitive kind of lyre that consists of
a short but stout piece of bamboo on which two vegetable fibres are
tightly drawn. The plectrum used by the player is equally primitive
being a fish-bone, a thorn or a bit of wood. The sound caused by grating
the two strings is more harmonious than one might suppose.
But the Sakais possess besides a wind instrument that claims more study
both in the making and the playing.
It belongs to the flute family and, of course, is made of bamboo. Like
all its brothers in the world it is open at one end, with three or four
holes on the top side.
Before playing it the performer carefully stops up one of his nostrils
with leaves and then applies the other to the first hole into which he
gently blows with his nose. From the instrument issues a sweet,
melancholy note. By leaving all the holes open a clear _sol_ (G) is
obtained; by shutting them all a _mi bemolle_ (E flat); the first hole
gives the note _mi_ (E) and the second _fa_ (F).
The _ciniloi_[15] (for so it is called) is not artistic to the eye and
loses all its poetry when one sees its owner blowing his nose into it
but the notes emanating from it breathe a vague sense of melody and
sadness not entirely unpleasant.
Some of the Sakais are quite masters of this instrument and the women
too prefer it to the _krob_. They seem to find extreme delight in
sending forth those long sustained and plaintive sounds as though lulled
by a dream, or absorbed in some pathetic thought.
On festive occasions when the solemnity of the entertainment increases
in proportion to the noise made, there is a full orchestra. The choruses
bawl, the bamboos deafen one with their loud noise like that of huge
wooden bells, the _krobs_ sob desperately at the way they are treated
by the plectrum, the _ciniloi_ whistles and laments, and all without any
fixed measure of time or modulation of tones, in a confusion of sounds
so discordant as to recall a very, very faint echo of the infernal
nocturnal concerts of the forest.
* * * * *
The orchestra prompt and the singing begun the female dancers advance by
twos and threes into the open space confined by palm leaves. Their
features are incognizable so disfigured are they with stripes and daubs
in red, white, black and sometimes yellow.
Their ball costume is exceedingly simple. They just lay aside the girdle
of beauty or chastity which they ordinarily wear and present themselves
to the public as Eve did to Adam; or like so many brown-skinned Venuses
with variegated masks.
They are however, profusely adorned with flowers.
The first time I saw a similar sight I was struck with surprise but then
remembering the cut of some of the evening dresses worn by our Society
ladies I came to the conclusion that comparing the clothes with which
the latter and the Sakai women are habitually covered there was nothing
to be said about the difference made in the toilet on grand and festive
occasions.
But to return to the dancers. They hold in their right hands a bunch of
palm leaves and begin their performance with curtsies, skips and the
contortions I have spoken of; then follows an undulating movement of the
flanks as they hurry forward, something in the same position as
"cake-walk" dancers, lightly beating the leaves in their hand against
others of the same kind they have fastened on their right hip.
The dance is a continual exercise of the joints and muscles, but its
swaying motion is not without grace and displays all the seductive
beauty of the girls whose freshness has not been destroyed by love and
maternity.
A little innocent vanity may be found in this Terpichorean competition
because every movement, every jump and contortion receive the greatest
attention and are followed by admiration and applause, when worthy of
the demonstration, from those who have danced before or have to do so
afterwards.
The men sometimes take an active part in the dance but their steps and
their movements are always the same as the women's.
The strange thing is that they take the serpent as their model of
gracefulness and elegance and seek to copy as closely as possible the
flexibility of its body and the gliding motion peculiar to that reptile.
A malignant person would perhaps find here the subject of a witty
sarcasm thinking that in the forest serpents in the guise of women dance
alone but with us, if we wish to dance at all, we are obliged to embrace
them!
These dances will often last until dawn, just as it is at our own
evening parties.
* * * * *
Neither song, nor dance, nor the sound of those primitive instruments
ever take the character of a religious demonstration.
Only on the nights enlivened by bright moonlight, whilst dancing in the
open air, their impromptu songs contain a greeting to the shining orb
that presides over their festivity and with its silvery rays enhances
its enjoyment. But in this there is nothing to suggest a special cult.
[Illustration: A trio for Sakai instruments.
_p._ 178.]
Over yonder they do not dance with any intention of intrigue in their
minds, or with the pretext and hope of meeting young persons of
opposite sexes in order to kindle the fatal spark that will lead them to
matrimony; there they dance for the pure pleasure of dancing, for
sincere, hearty enjoyment without any other scope or desire, because, as
I mention in another place, the young men and maidens of the same
village being all relations, marriage is not permitted between them; the
wives must be chosen from a different tribe. This wise custom was
evidently established to exclude consanguineous unions (with their
degenerating consequences) and perhaps also to consolidate the brotherly
ties between people of the same race.
I think if Mantegazza had ever been present at one of these dances of
the Sakai girls, he would have added another beautiful page to his
_estasi umane_ ("Human Ecstasies") because at these little festivals,
whether they are held in the hut or outside, one never sees pouting
faces, frowning brows or any other indication of preoccupation or
passion. Everybody is merry and their delight can be read upon their
countenances (notwithstanding the frightful way they are besmeared with
paint), and shines in their eyes; happy are the women who blow into the
flute or grate the _krob_ or beat the bamboo sticks; happy are the girls
that dance; happy are the youths who join in the chorus. It is an
innocent amusement for innocent souls.
* * * * *
To finish off this chapter I here give a very free translation of a
song, whose words I was able to catch and remember, which came from the
lips of my dear friends upon my returning among them after a long
absence:
"O'er mountains and rivers you have passed to come amongst us as a
friend, as a friend who will not hurt us, and behold we are here to
meet you bearing with us all that the forest has yielded us to-day.
"The clear and beautiful mountain announced the good news and now you
have returned to us who rejoice at seeing you again".
The form was not so but I have given the thought exactly, a thought, as
you see, full of affection and with a very faint perfume of poetry about
it. You will not accuse me, therefore, of being too optimistic when I
affirm that the Sakai, in spite of his semblance to a wild man of the
bush, savage, suspicious and superstitious as he is, is susceptible of
rapid intellectual progress whenever the right means are used in his
favour, and towards that end.
FOOTNOTES:
[Footnote 15: Pronounced _chinneloy_--_Translator's Note._]