Fang, The Movie
a.k.a.
The Canyon Stops At Midnight
Chapter-29
The Dance
Across the council grounds, queer distant animal calls are heard and the Findian audience know that the dancers are about to enter the council circle.
Then from behind the horse corral two long moving lines of deer antlers appear. At once, Findians who had been talking or milling about the circle of logs, move back and away. This ancient pageant is beginning.
I look about to make sure that Sam has seen what has been developing ... and "is" with the proceedings. Finally I find him standing with the movie crowd and Lotte Madonna-fish. He is staring intently at something. I look where Lotte Madonna-fish is pointing. Wo ... can it be? The leading War Captain is none other than Fang.
First, the audiance sees only the forms of the deerfish-fifty or sixty Elderfish wrapped in full-length deer hides and head skulls. The faces of the Elderfish are hardly noticeable as they move bent over short sticks held in each hand. These poles project their bodies into images of deerfish. These poles have become, for the moment, their front legs.
There is no color but only the movement of dark bodies. They moved like bemused creatures, coming among strange beings -- knowing themselves to be appointed for sacrifice.
If you could look between the deerfish, you would see a few other animals; fish stripped and painted black and wearing heavy wolffish heads; small fingerlings wrapped in the skin of bobfish or coyotefish; even tiny bird like creatures smothered under the feathers of a turkey-fish. These very small fingerlings walk hidden under the bent bodies of the Elderfish.
As this column of deerfish dance across the center of the council circle, the two lines of deerfish suddenly open and each deerfish quickly dances outward towards a different compass points-leaving behind a closely-huddled group of bobfish, turkeyfish and other small Forest creatures.
The audience of Findians have seen this story many times ... but each time there is a gasp of approval when these small creatures suddenly appear. The dancing actions of these fingerlings will be closely watched by the Elderfish .
The Hollywood people have never seen such a sight and have trouble paying attention to their duties.
Then the elkfish come into the circle of logs. They come to the council grounds as stately creatures with feathered head dress and turquoise-blue antlers above their white skirt and shawl.
There is real art in the unison which these dancers have achieved. Their spirit is displayed by the varying tempo of their steps. The elkfish are lofty, with heads held high; the deerfish are easily startled, shy and quickly graceful; the antelopefish bob about so that their fan feathers bounce as a tail might bob over yellow buckskin leggins.
Now the hunter-dancers enter the circle. The hunters are buffalo dancers played by Elderfish whose bodies, are bare above the waist and painted black. They move with the slow-lumbering pace of huge animals. They appear to present no immediate danger. Their heavy buffalo heads move clumsily from side to side. They also carry bow and arrow in the left hand, a pine bough-for cover-in the right.
Their buffalo heads and skins are used to transform these fish into the bodies of other animals and so to trick the game into the path of the hunter. This dance is ancient as the earliest human or fish. Much later, these dances will be shortened, to become abstract copies of the original and danced for a few minutes before nearly naked tourist wandering about shooting the Findians with their cameras.
The drums are now throbbing much louder than before. The high falsetto voices of the chorus waver wildly as the game takes refuge behind imaginary trees. They sense that danger is about.
The Findian audience grows tense, and in a few confused movements an animal is killed. This time it is a deerfish -- stalked by a hunter -- as he flees from tree to tree. First one arrow is shot-missed. A second arrow-missed. The deerfish stops-confusion. Where is the hunter? Finally, the deerfish is struck by an arrow from a twanging bow. Hit in midflight, the animal leaps into the air, falls limp, and expires in the dust with a few convulsive kicks. An Elderfish rush to him, lift his perfectly relaxed body, and throws it over another hunter's shoulder, then is carry it off into the audience.
As hunter and game leave this circle of activity, they are immediately greeted by friends who compliment them for their skill in telling this story which has only repeated the events that occurred during a recent hunt.
Some animals are successful and escape because of the mistakes or inexperience of the hunters. At the appropriate time, the audience roars acknowledgment of each folly. Inevitably some game yield to the hunters.
Then the last dancers disappear, and the audience disperses assured of successful hunting for the year.
By now it is late in the afternoon. As the participants return to their shelters many discussions will be held about today's dances. The proven elderfish will be complimented for their jokes that were "described" by their dance. Of particular tribal significance will be quiet discussions on how this or that fingerling understood the seriousness of what he had been acting out.
In this way the Findians pass their culture on to each generation.
Even though the dance was over no one moved or talked. We all were dead tired. Even the camera crew simply sat down where they were or slumped up against a tree or nearby rock.
Next day, the Findians would returned to their home -- their Pueblo... and so would we.
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