Music Of The Waters - online book
Sailors' Chanties, Songs Of The Sea, Boatmen's, Fishermen's,
Rowing Songs,
& Water Legends with lyrics & sheet music
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Music of tub Watebs. 317 |
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" On many a still evening, when a dead silence reigned upon the water, we have listened with pleasure to the artless and unpolished air, which was sung with little alteration through the whole fleet. Extraordinary exer. tions of bodily strength, depending in a certain degree on the willingness of the mind, are frequently accompanied with exhilarating exclamations among the most savage peoples ; but the Chinese song could not be considered in this point of view. Like the exclamations of our seamen in hauling the ropes, or the oar-song of the Hebridians, which, as Dr. Johnson has observed, resembles the pro-celeusmatic verse by which the rowers of Grecian galleys were animated, the chief object of the Chinese chorus seemed to be that of combining cheerfulness with regularity." |
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NEW ZEALAND.—THE MAORIES.
It is said of the Maories, in New Zealand, that they are so much attached to singing as often to spend the entire night in its gratification, and all work is prosecuted with the aid of song.
Mr. Shortland has collected the words of several of the songs—or, more properly speaking, chants—which are used by the Maories when they are hauling heavy logs of wood or canoes overland, in order to ensure a simultaneous |
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