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	Music of the Waters. 327

	The interpretation is— 1. It is my form and person that make me great. 2. Hear the voice of my song, it is my voice. 3. I shield myself with secret coverings. 4. All your thoughts are known to me, blush ! 5. I could draw you hence were you ever so far. 6. Though you were on the other hemisphere— 7. I speak to your naked heart. I can picture the blank amazement of the modern sailor if asked to convey his sentiments to " Kate" or " Nancy " in some such way, and Nancy's bewilderment if he succeeded in so doing; and yet I may almost say, that the foregoing is a specimen of an American-Indian sea-song, for it was chiefly of the sea and by the sea that these tribes lived. Max Muller adds, "All we can say is, that if the Indians can read this writing, they are greater adepts in the mysteries of love than the judges of the old cours damour. But it is much more likely that these war-songs and love-songs are known to the people beforehand, and that their writings are only meant to revive what exists in the memory of the reader. It is a kind of mnemonic writing, and it has been used by missionaries for similar purposes, and with considerable success." Captain Dixon gives the notes of the following song, which he says he often heard whilst in Norfolk Sound :—