-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 versa_. 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 perfo