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[Page 422]

Manners & Customs of the South Sea Islands

Musick is at a very little known to them which is the more wonderfull as they are very fond of it They have only two instruments the flute & the drum The former is made of a hollow bamboo about a foot long in which is 3 holes into one of these they blow with one nostril stopping the other with the thumb of the right left hand the other two they stop & unstop with the fore finger of the left & middle finger of the right hand by this means they produce 4 notes & no more of which they have made one tune that serves them for all occasions to which they sing a number of songs pehay as they call them generaly consisting of two lines affecting a coarse metre & generaly in Rhime may be they would appear more musical if we well understood the accent of their language but are as downright prose as can be wrote I shall give two or 3 specimens of songs made upon our arrival

Te de pahai de parow-a
Ha maru no mina

[In left margin]
Compare with 231.

 

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