Sōkē or eke is a Tongan group dance performed with sticks which the performers hit against each other on the beat of the drum. It has some common elements with, but is a complete independent development from the English Morris dance. As with most Tongan dances, the whole performance is to dazzle the spectators and to please the chiefs. There is no hidden purpose. History The original "eke" comes from Futuna. It was composed by the Futunans as a kind of penitence for the murder of the Marist father Pierre Chanel in 1841. With the introduction of Catholicism in Tonga, they brought the eke with them, first to Tafahi, then to Niuafoou. After the volcanic eruption of their island in 1946 the people of Niuafoou were resettled on Eua. From there the eke, by then named sōkē came to Tongatapu, to the Catholic diocese of Maufanga to be more exact, which brought it into Tonga's mainstream. Performance A single vaka (boat) consists of 2 men and 2 women facing each other. Each of the men have one long stick, about 2 meter, the women carry short sticks, about 40 cm, one in each hand. Occasionally this assignment is exchanged. On the beat of the music they hit the sticks against each other in a repeating pattern. In the first movement, for example, the woman to the left (or right) hits with her right stick the top of the stick of the man to the right (or left), then her left stick against his on the bottom, and then her right on his top again, while on the fourth beat they turn around to prepare for the next movement. But many variants are possible. The last hit can be done with her left stick again, while he quickly turns over his whole stick. Or the second hit can be in the middle on the long stick, which the man keeps up as a shield In the second movement the exchange is diagonally: the men hit the tops of their sticks together, then the bottoms, then the tops again, while the women in the space left over hit their sticks together. Or perhaps the men hit only twice, giving the women more space to elegantly hit their sticks in the middle on the second beat. Again beat 4 is the transition to the next movement. The third movement may be as the