Illustration: DANCE IN FRONT OF DECEASED MAN'S HOUSE]

After several days' dancing and gorging indoors, a crowd collects, to the
sound of the drums, outside the habitation. The lay figure is from the
room transported either directly outside the dwelling or to some
picturesque spot in the woods. This is generally on the fourth day. Bowls
with food are placed in front of it, and the dancing is begun, to a
curious sentimental strain, with a graceful series of contortions, by
girls and women waving large pieces of white material. The legs keep time
with the arms, and each leg is alternately bent at the knee until it
nearly touches the ground. The head is inclined to the right or left, and
thrown backwards or forwards according to the beating of the drum. The
circular motion in the dancing begins first very slowly, and the speed
then increases by degrees, abruptly ending in odd and suggestive
postures. During the intervals of dancing the relatives go round and
round the lay figure, dusting and fanning it with their white cloths.

[Illustration: THE GOAT WITH SOUL OF DECEASED BEING FED]

In the afternoon the men join the performance, and though their dancing
has practically the same characteristics and motions as the women's
dance, it is usually so much more violent that it almost partakes of the
character of a war-dance. They hold in their right hands a sword, in the
left a circular shield, and some of the younger men show great skill in
the rapid manipulation of their blades, twirling them round their heads
and behind their backs. There are solos, duets and trios, in which the
drummer or drummers take part, and when the dancing is collective, they
head the procession, contorting their bodies and beating their drums with
a stick on one side and the palm of the hand on the other.

[Illustration: GOAT, WITH SOUL AND CLOTHES OF DECEASED]

The whole crowd is constantly regaled by the family with corn baked with
sugar, roasted Indian corn, rice, sweets, _ghur_ and _miseri_, when the
lay figure is supposed to have had its fill. While the mob eat, the
ladies of the house return to the effigy with quick beating of the drums,
and again double themselves up in solemn lengthy curtsies. Perhaps the
most interesting, because the most accomplished, were the solo male
dancers, each performer displaying his own particular genius. The drummer
beats his drum whimsically--fast and slow alternately, with no rule--just
as it pleases his fancy