Women singing on the shore and native dances

Georg Forster describes the singing and dancing of the native Tasmanians, relating them to the Tahitian heeva.

They were all in conversation, of which no doubt the arrival of our ships furnished the topics; and many of their women amused themselves either with singing or playing at ball. There was a young girl in particular, whose features were more regular than common, her eyes sparkling with vivacity, her whole frame admirably proportioned, and, what was most remarkable here, her long jetty hair hanging down in graceful curls on her neck. This girl, lively and easy in all her actions, played with five gourds, of the size of small apples, perfectly globular; she threw them up into the air one after another continually, and never failed to catch them all with great dexterity, at least for a quarter of an hour. The musical ladies again performed the same tune which we had already heard at Ea-oowhe, the different voices falling in with each other very harmoniously, and sometimes joining all together as in chorus. Though I never saw the natives of these islands dance, yet we may add this amusement to the list of those which they are acquainted with, from their own accounts and gestures whenever they sold us their aprons made of stars of coco-nut core, and ornamented with shell-work and red feathers, or such as were curiously wrought of mats in resemblance of fret-work. From these gestures I have great reason to suppose that their dances are of a dramatic kind, and public, like those which I have spoken of in the Society Isles, (see pag. 398). Schouten and Le Maire likewise strongly confirm this supposition by their account of the dances at Horne Island. It appeared, upon the whole, that the customs and language of these islanders have a great affinity with those of the Taheitians, and that it would not therefore be very singular to find a coincidence even in their amusements.

pp. 473-474

1773 10 06