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MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS |
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to adopt the doctrines embodied in the composition, and to diffuse them among his subjects who likewise delighted in the performances. In Peru a similar experiment, resorted to by the priests who accompanied Pizarro's expedition, proved equally successful. They dramatized certain scenes in the life of Christ and represented them with music, which so greatly fascinated the Indians that many of them readily embraced the new faith. Nor are these entertainments dispensed with even at the present day by the Indian Christians, especially in the village churches of the Sierra in Peru ; and as several religious ceremonies have been retained by these people from their heathen forefathers, it may be conjectured that their sacred musical performances also retain much of their ancient heathen character.
Most of the musical instruments found among the American Indians at the present day are evidently genuine old Indian contrivances as they existed long before the discovery of America. Take, for example, the peculiarly shaped rattles, drums, flutes, and whistles of the North American Indians, of which some specimens in the Kensington museum are described in the large catalogue. A few African instruments, introduced by the negro slaves, are now occasionally found in the hands of the Indians, and have been by some travellers erroneously described as genuine Indian inventions. This is the case with the African marimba, which has become rather popular- with the natives of Guatemala in central America: but such adaptations are very easily discernible. |
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