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Chapter Twenty-six. Tribesmen Of Tirap |
| caption: |
songs and chants of boys and girls |
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Alternating, boys and girls chanted, replying in verse to each other. The tenor of the chant which seemed to combine traditional features with skilful improvisation, reflected very clearly the young people's attitude to premarital romance as well as the obligations resulting from kinship ties and a pattern of preferential marital unions between cross-cousins. In an abbreviated form, leaving out repetitions and phrases which do not add to the progress of the enacted dialogue between a group of boys and the girls they have come to court, the song runs as follows: |
