| caption: |
Chapter Three. Phases of Life |
| caption: |
flirting and chanting on platforms in the evening |
| text: |
When at dusk the villagers returned from the fields, the girls would gather on large bamboo platforms outside the village. There, they were joined by the boys of the morung with which they had the closest reciprocal relations. The same young people who during the day behaved with perfect decorum now abandoned all reticence, and many a couple would sit closely pressed together under a single cloak. This was the time when the boys and girls sang improvised alternative chants. The point of these chants lay in the quick and witty repartee, with which a singer capped a partner's last phrase. The language used in this type of competition was a poetic language which differed from that used in everyday speech. |
