Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 38.djvu/17

Rh unpremeditated. "A Samoan can hardly put his paddle in the water without striking up some chant." A chief of the Kyans, "Tamawan, jumped up and while standing burst out into an extempore song, in which Sir James Brooke and myself, and last not least the wonderful steamer, was mentioned with warm eulogies." In East Africa "the fisherman will accompany his paddle, the porter his trudge, and the housewife her task of rubbing down grain, with song." In singing, the East African "contents himself with improvising a few words without sense or rhyme and repeats them till they nauseate." Among the Dahonians any incident "from the arrival of a stranger to an earthquake" is turned into a song. When rowing, the Coast-negroes sing "either a description of some love intrigue or the praise.of some woman celebrated for her beauty." In Loango "the women as they till the field make it echo with their rustic songs." Park says of the Bambarran—"they lightened their labors by songs, one of which was composed extempore; for I was myself the subject of it." "In some parts of Africa nothing is done except to the sound of music." "They are very expert in adapting the subjects of these songs to current events." The Malays "amuse all their leisure hours... with the repetition of songs, which are for the most part proverbs illustrated. . . . Some that they rehearse in a kind of recitative at their bimbangs or feasts are historical love-tales." A Sumatran maiden will sometimes begin a tender song and be answered by one of the young men. The ballads of the Kamtschadales are "inspired apparently by grief, love, or domestic feeling;" and their music conveys "a sensation of sorrow and vague, unavailing regret." Of their long-songs it is said "the women generally compose them." A Kirghiz "singer sits on one knee and sings in an unnatural tone of voice, his lay being usually of an amorous character." Of the Yakuts we are told "their style of singing is monotonous... their songs described the beauty of the landscape in terms which appeared to me exaggerated."

In these statements, which, omitting repetitions, are all which the Descriptive Sociology contains relevant to the issue, several striking facts are manifest. Among the lowest races the only musical utterances named are those which refer to the incidents of the moment, and seem prompted by feelings which those incidents produce. The derivation of song or chant from emotional speech in general, thus suggested, is similarly suggested by the habits of many higher races; for they, too, show us that the musically-expressed feelings relevant to the immediate occasion, or to past occasions, are feelings of various kinds: now of simple good spirits and now of joy or triumph—now of surprise, praise, admiration, and now of sorrow, melancholy, regret. Only among certain of the more advanced races, as the semi-civilized Malays