The ballad - Index of

The Ballad
bodily movements, especially regular movements,
with corresponding vocal expressions.
Even the
solitary individual is subject to this tendency ;
the child alone in a swing will sing in time to the
movement of the pendulum, and the modern
man putting on his boots in private indicates to
himself the fact that he is
making an effort with
a purely dramatic grunt. But when two or three
people are making an effort in common, the tendency
is far more clearly marked and
; thus, out
of the unison ejaculations of men rowing, of
sailors hauling, of women is
weaving, born
rhythmic utterance.
The next stage (says the theory)
is the association,
in the minds of those who have taken part
in such efforts, of a particular rhythmic utterance
with a particular act. From his daily occupations
primitive man evolved his worship of
tutelary gods deities whose function it was to
look after his rowing or sailing and his
; piety
bade him honour particular gods with particular
festal songs and dances. Suppose, then, that a
primitive tribe has returned to headquarters with
mind and senses full of some recent exploit,
and forgathers to celebrate the occasion ;
the
natural tendency
is to re-enact or recite the
achievement by reproducing dramatically the
movements and sounds that accompanied it. In
either case the atmosphere is electric ;
there is a
community of feeling and of ideas far more spon-
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