Travel of Georg Forster
Dusky Sound - New Zealand (Dusky Bay)
Title
Men's ritual ceremony at Dusky Bay
Short description
The natives are convinced to board the ship and on the morning of April 19 the man and the younger woman appear on the shore. Georg Forster describes the ritual performed by the man before boarding.
Text on source
He then began to repeat a kind of speech or prayer, which seemed to have regular cadences, and to be metrically arranged as a poem; his eyes were fixed upon the place he had touched, his voice was raised, and his whole behaviour grave and solemn. The young woman, though at other times laughing and dancing, now kept close to the man and was serious all the while he spoke, which
lasted about two or three minutes; at the close of his speech he struck the ship's side again, threw the branch into the main chains, and came aboard. This manner of delivering solemn orations, and making peace, is practiced by all the nations which have been seen in the South Sea before our voyage, as appears from the testimonies of various voyagers.
English translation
Folios/Pages
p. 161
Date
1773 04 19
Observations on the events description
The interesting thing is the ritual performed by the man; the woman's dancing is mentioned, contrasting with her serious attitude.
The dots on the map indicate the places where sound and music events were described. They don't represent travel stages.
Participants
Name
Role
Notes
Edit
Delete
Cook, James
Viewer
Forster, Johann Reinold
Viewer
How to quote
Fabbrocino A. P., "Men's ritual ceremony at Dusky Bay" (Event description), Echos. Sound Ecosystems in Travelogues. Published 2024 03 13.
doi: 10.25430/echos.travels.76
This work is licensed under CC-BY-SA 4.0 
