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| compare with [p] 231 | Musick is very little known to them which is the more wonderfull as they are very fond of it. They have only two instruments the flute and 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 left hand, the other two they stop and unstop with the fore finger of the left and middle finger of the right hand; by this means they produce 4 notes and 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 and 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
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Voyaging Accounts |  |
© Derived from State Library of NSW Transcription of Banks's Journal page (vol.1) 362, February 2004
Published by kind permission of the Library
To cite this page use: https://paulturnbull.org/project/southseas/journals/-banks_remarks-117.html