Even while this is so , however , the fact remains that the dream , true or false , goes a long way to convince the credulous native ; and it might be forcibly argued that large and important movements like this Taro cult , for example have often had their beginning in nothing more than the mere accident of a dream .sx It was said that the visionary , whose vision is little more than a reproduction of what he has learnt from the teacher and observed with his own eyes , still adds some little detail of his own .sx Thus a Taro man , who makes no secret of the fact that he received instruction and medicines from another , announces that his father has appeared to him in a dream and made known the secret of a new medicine , leaving a fragment in his sleeping hand .sx Another has had a series of dream visits from a certain female relative named Bagani .sx She has left behind at different times the wood-plate betaia , the taro-fork orai , the small cooking-pot , &c .sx , all of them utensils belonging to the Taro etiquette .sx But he has another distinctive dream-gift .sx Clearing in his garden one day he came across a stone and merely set it aside .sx That night the woman came to him in a dream and told him the stone he had passed by was a Taro stone ; it bore her name , ' Bagani ' .sx This name the dreamer was to assume for his own .sx He must keep the stone , and when the taro was being planted out place it on the platform ( karau ) at the edge of the garden .sx It is by such distinctive touches as these that the Taro men gain individuality .sx They hanker after a little independence .sx Some new medicine , some odd detail of procedure , will give it to them , and , what is more , bolster up their claims by making it appear that they are really inspired and in direct communication with the spirits .sx Constant added touches or minute changes have in course of time given rise to the sects or denominations , and perhaps to the more or less pronouncedvariants of the cult which will be later described in section 10 .sx The following pages will give an account of the various points of Taro ritual which have been passed on from one exponent of the cult to another , and which have been from time to time republished , so to speak , by the dreamer .sx 7 .sx Ritual and Practice .sx The singing , drum-beating , and feasting no very exacting ceremonies which constitute the chief ritual of the Taro cult , are together known as kasamba .sx The word is one of those made popular by the new cult , and is freely used in outlying parts of the Division by people who are as ignorant of its real meaning and derivation as I am myself .sx At a large kasamba the scene is little different from that of the ordinary Orokaiva feast , except for a new style of singing , a certain exaggerated etiquette in the setting forth of the feast , and the excesses of those who lose control of themselves .sx Hospitality seems always to have been a cardinal virtue with the Orokaiva , as indeed with most natives .sx A village takes a just pride and pleasure in feasting its neighbours , and long before the day of the forgathering there have been platforms conspicuously placed for the accumulation of the victuals .sx The taro and other garden products are gathered with a touch of ceremony which was probably absent in pre-Taro days .sx Led by the principal Taro man , the whole village files out to the gardens and returns with a load of tremendous tubers , while the drummers who accompany the party thump their drums with an odd mixture of solemnity and jubilation .sx The guests , when they arrive , are hailed clamorously with shouts of 'Oroda , oroda !sx ' which is the distinctive cry of the Taro men ; and the youths of the village will rush hither and thither , brandishing their weapons , and tearing down banana leaves or coco-nut .sx branches for their guests to sit on .sx Meanwhile the guests file into the village , headed by some old warrior with his stone club upon his shoulder , and if they are well-bred Orokaiva all this stormy welcome will not provoke so much as a flicker of response in their faces .sx They sit down abruptly , forming a shallow arc , and once seated seem to relax their gravity as their hosts ply them with betel-nut .sx Possibly a special platform or house , a sort of band-stand , has been erected for the occasion .sx This is called ba oro , i.e. ' Taro men's house ' , and is meant for the somewhat exclusive use of the accredited Taro men during the day , and for the chorus which is to continue throughout the night .sx The singers will crowd about a fire in the centre of the floor ; if the night be cold , they will sit more comfortably in the ascending heat of fires on the ground beneath .sx One man after another leads , singing a stave or two with the truly musical voice of the Orokaiva , and as , or almost before , he finishes , the whole chorus bursts forth with the refrain .sx The drums beat the distinctive Taro rhythm , viz .sx two equal beats followed by a pause equivalent to one of them , or time of three with the third beat missed .sx This rhythm , I believe , is used throughout the whole Division by the Taro singers , and , as far as I know , exclusively .sx It is the same rhythm as that of the dance baruga , practised long previous to the advent of Taro , save that it is considerably slower .sx According to one informant , the Taro measure had been specified , like other details of the cult , in a dream .sx The drums are tuned with no little care , the lizard skin being tautened with lumps of beeswax until the correct tone is obtained .sx Shell trumpets are blown by one or two boys , whose enthusiasm is not unequal to the immense staying power which this instrument demands ; but too often the shell trumpet , which admits of no tuning , shatters the harmony of the concert , and one can understand why a distracted missionary lit his Primus stove and placed it by his reading-lamp so that its roar might drown the discords of the kasamba .sx The singing is called sometimes kasamba , sometimes tinogu :sx the second word , like the first , is one of the new Taro vocabulary , presumably belonging to the Binandele dialect , but used nowadays by Taro men among the Aiga , for instance , in preference to their own word peungu .sx As so often with native songs , the meaning is very obscure , even to the singers ; and sometimes the theme , when it is discovered , appears somewhat beside the mark .sx Mr. Elder writes , regarding the Taro songs , ' some of them had little or nothing to do with taro .sx One for instance ran , " I'm a duck , I'm a duck , a jamb in the river , I'm a duck " ' .sx And he not ineptly adds , ' I fancy the Taro worshipper who composed that song must secretly have been an unbeliever , and a bit of a humorist' .sx But very commonly the song consists of a series of apostrophes to the taro , a kind of salutation or hailing of it by name , with the cry of welcome , ' Oroda !sx ' which is a countersign of the cult .sx Thus one may hear , ' Oroda Kaiva , oroda Porove , Ovivi !sx ' &c .sx , in endless musical repetition ; or ' Ba de aja bor jo Mother taro increase ' , and similar phrases , little canticles in which praise , exhortation , and prayer are combined .sx Very often it is futile to search too deeply for a meaning , because the words of the song have been learned by rote , and so confused in the course of transmission that they have become little better than gibberish .sx But whatever their meaning or lack of it , the songs are understood to contribute in some way to the growth of the taro ; and some informants have declared that the Taro spirits heard them and responded .sx As the Taro men have adopted a new name for the feast kasamba instead of the old-fashioned pona so they have introduced certain new formalities into the conduct of the feast .sx Taro must be cut up into small lumps ; when cooked it must be ranged in a row of boat-shaped wooden dishes teo , or the large platters made of canoe-board and called betaia ; from the earthenware cooking-pot it must be transferred to the wooden dish by means of the .sx wooden fork or prong called orai ; the really correct implement for peeling it before cooking is the black oyster-shell yowa .sx These very trivial points are accorded a good deal of importance , because , one and all , they have been impressed upon the Taro men by the spirits .sx One man , for instance , met his deceased imbo , or maternal uncle , in a dream , and was directed to make ' forks ' from a certain kind of tree named aima .sx The forks , of which there was now a large supply in the village , were merely pointed pieces of wood , painted a dull red with clay ; but they appeared to possess a sanctity out of all proportion to their appearance or utility .sx It would be impossible to tell how often forks , wooden dishes , platters , and so forth have been bestowed upon various dreamers by the spirits of the taro or the spirits of the dead .sx It has been said already that dancing is not a marked feature of the Taro cult , although the Orokaiva have developed the dance to an admirable degree of perfection in their older ceremonies .sx Hitherto the devotees of the cult have been only too ready to find satisfaction in the absurd and sometimes hideous antics which are presently to be described .sx Some sects perform a stationary and others a sort of processional dance , both of which compare very unfavourably with the graceful and animated ballet which is the best product of Orokaiva art .sx There are , however , certain dances belonging to minor sects which seem to conform to the older style .sx Buninia him-self originated such a dance , which has already been mentioned ( p. 13) .sx Yavevi , a disciple 'of the Manau cult , used to perform with his followers one of unusual complexity .sx The Hobora , or ' Rooster ' , men reproduced in a nature dance certain characteristic actions of the domestic cock , and theirs was one of the prettiest performances it has been my good fortune to see among Orokaiva dancers .sx But it is still true that the dance is , as yet , only a minor and ill-developed feature of the cult .sx The Taro men prefer as a rule to sit down as they sing .sx A tinogu or kasamba may be merely impromptu , when it is per- .sx formed in one of the men's houses , oro , which is usually no more than a roofed platform .sx In the event of a large festival , a ba oro , or Taro house , will be constructed for the occasion , and after the feast this structure may remain as in some sort a temple of the Taro .sx It is frequented ( not always exclusively ) by the accredited Taro men and their professional visitors ; it is the scene of recurring kasamba ; and in some cases it is the place for food offerings to the spirits .sx A miniature platform will sometimes be found in the roof gable , with a dish of taro and dried fish , to which the spirits help themselves , betraying their presence , I am told , by faint ' sip sip' noises , like the chirping of the geckos which haunt all native houses .sx In the ba oro a Taro man will sometimes sit alone , be-labouring his drum and shaking his rattled spear .sx This , for reasons which he probably cannot explain , will please the spirits and induce them to prosper the taro .sx Besides the very congenial duties of singing and eating , the Taro man has certain more directly useful tasks .sx These consist especially in the use of his medicines .sx Ba sivo , or magical fertilizers for the taro plant , were known long before the present cult came into being .sx One can often see in them a kind of logic , that of homoeo- .sx pathic magic .sx