Scan 93
The American history and encyclopedia of music, 1908
18 lines. Read by computer on 11 September 2026. No printed page number was found. See the scan on archive.org.
1they link their arms about each other's necks forming a circle of several together, and then sway back and forth crying, "Heigh-oh-h-h, Heigh-oh-h-h," drawing out the last tone in a piercing wail, with a peculiar sound made by wagging the tongue sidewise from cheek to cheek inside the mouth. Alternating with the wails, they chant a lamentation in verse. The curious thing is that each woman, unless a near relative, bewails not the present dead but her own lost relatives, though it may be many years since those relatives died. The men have no part in this strange musical mourning. A funeral scene at night, with the compound dimly lighted by torches, the air filled with the wailing of the mourners and the beating of tom-toms, makes an impression truly weird and uncanny.
3The following lines are a specimen of the dirges sung by a mother for her son:
5How is it, O my dearest son, that cruel disease took hold of thy golden body?
6How is it that thy fair body should become subject to a bad disease?
7We thought the clever doctor would not let thee die.
8We thought thou wast an iron fortress and so invulnerable.
9We thought thou wast a stone fortress and not to be demolished.
10But thou hast been to us a fortress of clay washed away by rain.
11Is the jungle to be thy habitation, O my dearest son?
12Is the barren ground to be thy majestic seat?
13It is not just, O pupil of my eye, that sparks of fire should fly over thy golden body.
14It is not just that fire should be kindled to burn thy fair body.
15Though I eat rice hereafter, O my darling! it shall not be savory.
17The term "concert music" is applied to a number of kinds of music which may be loosely grouped as the music of the people. Any one who is musically inclined may learn and practise this music. Its performance is not limited to a single low caste, as in the case with auspicious and funeral music. It is accompanied by a special set of instruments; a double flute with a single mouthpiece, small cymbals, a violin, a drone, a small drum-like instrument held in one hand and thrummed with the other, and a long slender drum beaten
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