have played, worked and fought side by side. Many will be bound to each other by ties of blood-relationship or by other social ties such as those created by marriage, blood-brotherhood, circumcision, magic associations, and so on. All are members of the same political group of the tribe and owe allegiance to the same chief. It is of some importance to bear in mind that the dance is a social activity carried on by persons amongst whom there is a bond of common association and experience based upon propinquity of residence, and that this bond is reinforced by feelings of kinship and other socializing forces.

People come to the dance in small parties, and friends and relatives will dance together in the same section of the ring of dancers. People come from all directions to meet their friends, lovers, relatives, to dance, gossip, and banter. Mothers bring their babies and the dance is the earliest occasion on which the individual is introduced into a far wider society than the small family group. When infants are able to walk they run and jump about outside the dance or near the drums in the centre, completely carried away by the rhythm. The dance plays a great part in broadening the outlook of childhood and in modifying the exclusive sentiments towards the parents built up in the family in babyhood and infancy.

As children grow up into boys and girls they will never miss a dance. To both sexes it is a means of display which becomes intensified at puberty. The dance is one of those cultural milieux in which sexual display takes place and selection is encouraged. The sexual situations of the dance are not very obvious to the observer. Boys and girls come to the dance to flirt, and flirtation often leads to sexual connexion, but society insists that neither the one nor the other shall be indulged in blatantly. At the same time society permits these sexual incidents so long as they occur with discretion and moderate concealment. A boy who openly approached a girl would be reprimanded and abused, but if he catches her attention whilst she is dancing with her friends, gives her a little nudge perhaps, and when he sees that his advances are reciprocated says mu je gude (come on kid!) no one will interfere. They go quietly into the bush or into a neighbouring hut and have intercourse. It is a different matter with married women. Their husbands are always jealous of

them going to dances and generally accompany them. Men are also frightened to flirt with married women since they will have to pay heavy compensation to the husbands and in the past risked the severe punishment of mutilation.

The dance therefore also belongs to that group of social institutions which allow sexual play to a moderate and discreet extent, the functions of which are to canalize the forces of sex into socially harmless channels, and by doing so to assist the processes of selection and to protect the institutions of marriage and the family.

To grown-up men and women the dance does not offer the same attraction as a means of flirtation as it does to younger people. To them, as indeed to every one who goes to a dance, it is the dancing which is the chief attraction. But the grown-ups show less inclination to be drawn into distractions and they give their whole attention to the rhythm of the dance. Old people do not normally take part in dancing.

We have mentioned a few important aspects of the gbere buda but we cannot here enter into the many other interesting problems which arise from observation of dancing. To do this we should have to give a complete and detailed description of every aspect of the whole activity.

We would, however, ask the general question, what is the social function of dancing? Such a question will give us a general statement which covers all dancing in all communities as distinct from the different specific functions of dances in different communities and on different occasions. We cannot do better than to summarize the excellent treatment of the problem by Professor Radcliffe Brown. We cannot give his opinions in full, but any one may read them in chapter V of his Andaman Islanders.1

1. The dance is a community activity in which the whole individual personality of the dancer is involved by the innervation of all the muscles of the body, by the concentration of attention required and by the action of the personal sentiments.

2. In the dance this whole personality of the individual submits to the action upon him by the community. He is constrained by I A. Radcliffe Brown, The Andaman Islanders, 1922.

the effect of the rhythm as well as by custom to take part in the collective activity and he is required to conform his actions to its needs.

3. The elation, energy, and self-esteem of the individual dancer are in harmony with the feelings of his fellow-dancers, and this harmonious concert of individual feelings and actions produces a maximum unity and concord of the community which is intensely felt by every member.

In the main our observations on the Zande beer dance are in agreement with Radcliffe Brown's analysis of dancing amongst the Andaman Islanders. The dance brings into play the whole muscular system of the dancer, it requires the activities of sight and hearing and it produces a feeling of vanity in the performer. All these experiences are heightened by their being expressed collectively. Certainly rhythm and custom influence the individual towards taking part in the dance. To some degree the dancer is compelled to co-ordinate his actions with the actions of the other dancers and this constrained co-ordination is pleasurable. There is also a tendency for the dance to increase goodwill and to produce a feeling of concord.

Radcliffe Brown's analysis provides a basis and stimulus for investigation and we should like to make further observations before committing ourselves to complete agreement. On the observations which we have already made on the Zande beer dance we wish to make some suggestions which would modify or refine these views.

The constraint exercised by rhythm and custom is not so much emphasized amongst the Azande. One frequently sees able-bodied Azande who take no part in the dancing. They are not compelled by custom to take any part in the activity nor do they show any discomfort at not responding to the rhythm of drums and melody. Some people do not like dancing and prefer to remain at home when a dance is in progress. It is true that these are persons who have passed the period of youth and probably there is a considerable difference in the influence of rhythm upon persons of different ages, its effect being more compulsive in the case of children than in the case of adults. Also conformity to the actions of other dancers allows considerable latitude to the individual. Individuals often wander about independently. Here again there is a correlation with age, adults keeping