| caption: |
the Ouliengbu or spring festival |
| caption: |
the great dance in circles |
| text: |
While I was still sitting in Chinyang's house, chanting could be heard from the Angban already. While yesterday only the Thepong performed the "Great Dance", today it was the Angban and Balang's turn. They started to dance on their own morung square and then went on to others. This way they are seen by the women and girls of all morungs as these sit and stand on the platforms near the dancing area of their own morung. As the Balang is not as populated as the Thepong they dance in only three rather than four concentric circles and young adult men and adolescent boys are in one circle. I counted twenty old and elderly men, eighteen young men and boys, and twenty-two small boys. On the whole the dance was like the one the Thepong had danced yesterday (84) but there are small differences in songs as well as steps. Both morungs continue dancing unwearily until sundown. The younger people of the other morungs also started to dance but they do not perform the "Great Dance" as Angban and Balang are doing. Late at night one hears singing again but today I was too tired to climb up to the village again. |
