Of some of the songs my informant told me briefly they were 'like about the WEEMEN';this I could have guessed myself.Each side (Ishould have said)was strengthened by one or two women.They were all soloists,did not very often join in the performance,but stood disengaged at the back part of the stage,and looked (in RIDI,necklace,and dressed hair)for all the world like European ballet-dancers.When the song was anyway broad these ladies came particularly to the front;and it was singular to see that,after each entry,the PREMIERE DANSEUSE pretended to be overcome by shame,as though led on beyond what she had meant,and her male assistants made a feint of driving her away like one who had disgraced herself.Similar affectations accompany certain truly obscene dances of Samoa,where they are very well in place.Here it was different.The words,perhaps,in this free-spoken world,were gross enough to make a carter blush;and the most suggestive feature was this feint of shame.For such parts the women showed some disposition;they were pert,they were neat,they were acrobatic,they were at times really amusing,and some of them were pretty.But this is not the artist's field;there is the whole width of heaven between such capering and ogling,and the strange rhythmic gestures,and strange,rapturous,frenzied faces with which the best of the male dancers held us spellbound through a Gilbert Island ballet.
Almost from the first it was apparent that the people of the city were defeated.I might have thought them even good,only I had the other troop before my eyes to correct my standard,and remind me continually of 'the little more,and how much it is.'Perceiving themselves worsted,the choir of Butaritari grew confused,blundered,and broke down;amid this hubbub of unfamiliar intervals I should not myself have recognised the slip,but the audience were quick to catch it,and to jeer.To crown all,the Makin company began a dance of truly superlative merit.I know not what it was about,I was too much absorbed to ask.In one act a part of the chorus,squealing in some strange falsetto,produced very much the effect of our orchestra;in another,the dancers,leaping like jumping-jacks,with arms extended,passed through and through each other's ranks with extraordinary speed,neatness,and humour.Amore laughable effect I never saw;in any European theatre it would have brought the house down,and the island audience roared with laughter and applause.This filled up the measure for the rival company,and they forgot themselves and decency.After each act or figure of the ballet,the performers pause a moment standing,and the next is introduced by the clapping of hands in triplets.Not until the end of the whole ballet do they sit down,which is the signal for the rivals to stand up.But now all rules were to be broken.During the interval following on this great applause,the company of Butaritari leaped suddenly to their feet and most unhandsomely began a performance of their own.It was strange to see the men of Makin staring;I have seen a tenor in Europe stare with the same blank dignity into a hissing theatre;but presently,to my surprise,they sobered down,gave up the unsung remainder of their ballet,resumed their seats,and suffered their ungallant adversaries to go on and finish.Nothing would suffice.Again,at the first interval,Butaritari unhandsomely cut in;Makin,irritated in turn,followed the example;and the two companies of dancers remained permanently standing,continuously clapping hands,and regularly cutting across each other at each pause.I expected blows to begin with any moment;and our position in the midst was highly unstrategical.But the Makin people had a better thought;and upon a fresh interruption turned and trooped out of the house.
We followed them,first because these were the artists,second because they were guests and had been scurvily ill-used.A large population of our neighbours did the same,so that the causeway was filled from end to end by the procession of deserters;and the Butaritari choir was left to sing for its own pleasure in an empty house,having gained the point and lost the audience.It was surely fortunate that there was no one drunk;but,drunk or sober,where else would a scene so irritating have concluded without blows?
The last stage and glory of this auspicious day was of our own providing -the second and positively the last appearance of the phantoms.All round the church,groups sat outside,in the night,where they could see nothing;perhaps ashamed to enter,certainly finding some shadowy pleasure in the mere proximity.Within,about one-half of the great shed was densely packed with people.In the midst,on the royal dais,the lantern luminously smoked;chance rays of light struck out the earnest countenance of our Chinaman grinding the hand-organ;a fainter glimmer showed off the rafters and their shadows in the hollow of the roof;the pictures shone and vanished on the screen;and as each appeared,there would run a hush,a whisper,a strong shuddering rustle,and a chorus of small cries among the crowd.There sat by me the mate of a wrecked schooner.'They would think this a strange sight in Europe or the States,'said he,'going on in a building like this,all tied with bits of string.'
