chief means adopted by prehistoric humanity of entering into active union with the god adored. The first idea was to imitate the measured movements of the god, or, at any rate, what were supposed to be such. Afterwards, this fundamental motive was more or less forgotten; but the rite remained in force, like so many other religious forms which tradition and habit sustained even when the spirit was gone. In Peru this tradition was still full of life. The name of the principal Peruvian festivals, Raymi, signifies a 'dance.' The performances were so animated that the dancers seemed to the Europeans to be out of their senses. It is noteworthy that the Incas themselves took no part in these violent dances, but had an 'Incas' dance' of their own, which was grave and measured."[1] When it is remembered that the choral hymn is not merely, as M. Burnouf tells us,[2] "the first literary form that poetic thought assumed among the Aryan race," but even contains apparently the germs of lyric and dramatic poetry alike in the West and East, this accompaniment of choral song by symbolic dancing, which is found in many parts of the world, and has left its marks on dramas so widely removed in their social conditions as those of Athens and Japan, must be regarded as a very significant fact in the growth of literature.
As the Russian Khorovods performed by girls may enable us to realise the Greek parthenia, or the hymeneal chorus with its responses of youths and maidens,[3] so the symbolical song-dances of American Indian tribes, while supplying interesting parallels to such dances as the
