very harmonious. They accompanied themselves while singing by snapping their fingers. The Kanaka women in Honolulu have wild, shrill voices like those of the peasants in South Germany, but they often sing and are always willing to do so. By far the greater number of Japanese songs are sung by girls; men would make themselves ridiculous by singing, just as they would never dance with their ladies in an evening party. That in New Zealand the women write poetry, and probably also compose (as music and poetry are there so bound up together), we have already stated. The greater part of those Chinook songs (North America) that Mr. Boas collected was composed by women. The composer either invented a new tune to each song or used old well-known tunes.1 The Nishinam women (Indians) have a sort of musical contest which is won by the woman who sings loudest and longest.5 Barbarian as it may appear to be, such performances are still in use in America, the modern counterpart being the "musical" contest which took place at Huber's Museum, New York, on the 23rd October, 1892. We are told the condition was that there should be no stop of any sort in the performance, so that from time to time each competitor had to be fed with a spoon, and both, it seems, drank beer. They started at 9 A.M. on the 23rd, and at 1'52 A.M. on the 24th the lady was "knocked out," her hands falling to her lap after sixteen hours fifty-two minutes of pianoforte pounding. The gentleman went on for eight minutes more, when he too stopped, his thumbs then being twice their usual size, while the lady's right wrist was swollen, the finger tips 1 Cook, Second Voyage, p. 220. 2 Buchner, Ocean, p. 399. 3 v. Holtz, l. c., p. 13, mus. examples; other Jap. songs, as taught in schools, quoted by Fr. Eckert, l. c., pp. 422-428. Boas, Chinook Song, l. c., p. 224; with mus. examples: Ponka and Omaha songs, quoted by Fletscher, l. c., p. 225; Dorsey, l. c., p. 271. 5 Powers, l. c., p. 326. were blistered, and she was very sleepy. Both performers talked freely to the people while they played, and Miss Melville received no fewer than three proposals of marriage within the first seven hours, besides two more before she stopped playing.1 2 Among the Apache Indians the women dance and sing; the Samacneca in Chili, too, is performed only by women, as is the music which accompanies it.3 On Buru Island (between Celebes and Papua), on the other hand, the woman's part is very small. Mr. Forbes tells us of a musical performance where the men sang an improvised song to the accompaniments of the native Tifa (drum), and they amused themselves royally, laughing heartily at their own improvised conceits. But the women sat around on stones, taking no part in the proceedings, resting their heads on their arms, elbows on their knees,, and looked like veritable automata.4 On the Marianna island Radack, Chamisso heard a song by women only.5 The song of the Botocudo (Amazon) men resembles an inarticulate war-cry; the women, however, sing less unpleasantly, but only a few notes, which they constantly repeat.6 In the playing of instruments too women sometimes hold a peculiar position. Among the Mississippi negroes the girls play upon a brass tube several feet long, from which many of them produce excellent tones, and sometimes even complete melodies.' The Papuans have two kinds of flutes of which only one may be played by women.8 The Karagwe tribes in Africa make the women beat their 1 Daily News, 19th Nov., 1892. 3 Wilkes, l. c., i. p. 171. 2 Schwatka, l. c., p. 51. 5 The words run as follows (Chamisso, l. c., p. 67): "Untertauchen in die See sechs Mal. Auftauchen aus der See sechs Mal. Sieben Mal." Simmel says of this song (l. c., p. 284): "In Radack the women sing even songs that deal with war and navigation" (?). Wied-Neuwied, abstract, vol. lxi. p. 155. 8 Schelling, l. c. 7 Busch, l. c., p. 260. 2 war-drums,1 and the Radack women go in the rear of battle beating their drums at the command of the leader; in times of peace too the drum, which always arouses their joy, is to be found in the women's hands. In New Guinea and New Britain several instruments are played by women only, as the pangolo, a bow with a string, and the wuwu (= wind, air), a globular fruit with four holes, one of which is blown into while the others are fingered. (Since 1884 it is out of use.5) The Tongala-up, a stick with a string whirled in the air, is played by women and children. The large heavy wooden drums, however, called angramut, are tabooed for the women. While manufacturing it, the men are not allowed to call on women.7 The Australians allow themselves to be drawn into all sorts of passionate actions by the music of the women. Four or five old women can stir up thirty or forty men to commit any bloody deed; they also have mourning-songs which they alone sing, while men only perform the war-songs. 9 8 Wallace when voyaging up the Amazon found a tribe, the women of which were not allowed even to look upon a certain instrument on pain of death.10 In Ceylon the women of a family sit the whole day long round a timbrel (Rabani), and from it produce a monotonous but most agreeable sound, by drumming with their fingers.11 With the Finnish Laplanders marriageable girls are not allowed to touch a certain drum.12 The chief instrument of Japanese young ladies of "quality" is the guitar (Samsic), and this they take to every entertainment, where they play upon it one after the other, and sing. So it seems that in Japan, too, the poor guests have their musical troubles. 3 Ibid., p. 119. 5 Ibid., p. IIO. 7 Ibid., p. 111. 9 Grey, Austr., p. 303. 4 Finsch, Erfahrg. Südsee, iii. 2, p. 112. 6 Ibid., p. 117. 8 Gerland, C., vi. pp. 747, 775. 10 Wallace, Amaz., pp. 348-49. 11 Tennent, l. c., i. p. 88, note 1. 12 Schefferus, l. c., p. 53. The part taken by women in music and song among primitive people is therefore a fairly large and exceptional one, more especially because of the intimate relationship between music and dancing, to which the women are everywhere passionately devoted. For this reason I purpose speaking in a later chapter (“ Music and Dancing") of the part which woman plays in primitive music. In some places the children, separated from the adults, sing choruses among themselves, and under certain circumstances they are the chief support of the practice of singing. On Hawaii Ellis found boys and girls singing in chorus, with an accompaniment of seven drums, a song in honour of a quondam celebrated chief. Even during supper with the Governor table-music was performed by a juvenile bard of some twelve or fourteen summers, who sang a monotonous song to the accompaniment of a small drum.1 2 The men do not everywhere take part in the musical performances. In Fiji a man of position deems it beneath him to sing, and he leaves it to his wives and children, so that women sing with women only, and children with children. On the other hand, on the Andaman Islands as a rule only the men sing, the women contenting themselves with beating time, and among the Thlinkcets (Indians) the men dance while the women sing. Among the Greenlanders men drum and sing all day long, women only at dancing parties.5 3 It has frequently been observed that the male singers sing so unusually high, as do the women at times, but in the former case it is much more surprising when compared with civilised races. In Abyssinia," in Madagascar, among 1 Ellis, Hawaii, pp. 74, 75. 2 Gerland, l. c., vi. p. 604. 3 Jagor, Andam., p. 45; Portman, l. c., p. 196. 4 Bancroft, i. p. 112; Langsdorf, l. c., ii. p. 114. 5 Graah, l. c., p. 85. 7 Pfeiffer, Madag., pp. 185-186. 6 Lobo, p. 27. 5 the Maoris,1 the song is pitched as high as possible and performed amid the greatest excitement. In a troop of Sudanese soldiers who once visited Europe the frequency of high tenor and bass voices was striking.2 All up the Niger and its tributaries the prevailing voice among men seems to be high baritone, and among women contralto.3 Among the male voices in a Hottentot chorus not a single baritone was heard; every one sang tenor, somewhat hoarsely it is true, but not unpleasantly. The men in Samoa, who have exceptionally good voices, sing a second tenor part. The Tasmanians, too, used to sing tenor. With the Andamanese "falsetto" is common among both sexes, though their general "timbre" is not as nasal as that of more civilised Oriental races. The usual compass of the voice in both sexes of the "Öngé" tribes is about an octave, the prevailing male voice being baritone, the prevailing female voice being contralto. All the notes of the women are distinctly head, not chest notes. Among the Nahua nation (North America) bass singers were rare, and were prized in proportion to their rarity. As a rule, however, the compass of Indian male voices is almost identical with that of the whites, and there was not one who was unable to sing tenor F easily, while the average compass was two octaves, F-f or A-a. Their voices are pleasant, but when the Spaniards first went to America they said the Indian voices sounded somewhat rough, but that they improved immensely under careful tuition.9 With these facts some interesting conclusions have been connected. Mr. Berg 10 imagines that the male voice was formerly higher than now, and that this is only 1 Wood, l. c., p. 162. 3 Day, Niger, p. 272. 7 Portman, l. c., p. 183. 2 Zöllner, p. 447· 4 Michaelis, l. c., p. 527. 6 Bonwick, l. c., p. 32. 8 Bancroft, l. c., ii. p. 294. 10 Berg, l. c., pp. 18, 19. |