Very many dances are executed in the most primitive fashion as round dances, in many cases by women and maidens. From the Batak districts the ceremonial sibaso dance, which is performed by tile Toba women, deserves to be mentioned.

Southern Sumatra and the adjacent area of central Sumatra is the scene of dances performed by unmarried girls, who are draped in heavy vestments interlaced with gold, and wear upon their heads a crown adorned with gilded laurel leaves. These dances are usually accompanied by five or six small gongs resting upon crossed ropes in wooden stands. These dances, too, have been influenced by foreign styles: their magic-evoking character has yielded to graceful restrained female charm.

On northern Nias a complete stop was put to native dancing at tile instigation of the missionaries. Only in the southern half of the island did some of the old war dances, snake dances, and graceful round dances survive.

Of the numerous dances of the Toradja the best known -Are those per formed at funeral ceremonies. The ritual, with its strange and often grotesque customs, attracted attention already at an early date. And when a distinguished person was snatched by death, the 'festivities' were complicated and lengthy. Their climax came with the sacrifice of several buffaloes and the burial of the corpse in a grotto set high up in a sheer cliff face. An important element in the death i ties was the round dance, or ma'badong

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