Music Of The Waters - online book

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	326 MUSIC OF THE WATEBS.



	THE INDIANS OF NORTH-WEST AMERICA. Amongst the many and varied kinds of music and song-verses that have come under my notice since I entered upon the task of collecting the " Music of the Waters," there is no specimen of notation that has struck me as being so entirely original, and, if I may use the word, so comical, as those of the Indians, as described by Max Miiller in the chapter devoted to the " Popol Vuk," in the first volume of his " Chips from a German Workshop." I mean the war-songs and love-songs in the picture-writing, and which were really supposed to be perfectly intelligible to all the tribes. What should we, enlightened mortals of this nineteenth century, make of the following, for instance ?— i. Figure representing a god [inonedd) endowed with magic power. 2. Figure beating the drum and singing; lines from his mouth. 3. Figure surrounded by a secret lodge. 4. Two bodies joined with one continuous arm. 5. A woman on an island. 6. A woman asleep ; lines from his ear towards her. 7. A red heart in a circle.