620 AFRICAN NATIVE MELODIES. 



formance, with the resoundnig gourd-zither, will, if they have 

 ears for rhythm, have gained some experience of its intricacy ; 

 but even the humble lullaby (like No. 12 below), which may 

 be heard in the backyard, w^ill be found often quite a problem 

 to unravel. Indeed, had 1 possessed a rhythmometer, such as 

 is now used by ethnological students, 1 should have been inclined 

 to confine myself to rhythm ; but as my unaided ear was quite 

 inadequate to the task of rhythm-record, I have fallen back 

 on melody, which will, in conjunction with the rhythm of the 

 Bantu words, sufficiently indicate, I hope, the beat. I have 

 confined myself to melody, and this has the advantage of bring- 

 ing out the scale and essential characteristics of the air, and 

 avoidinsf the intricacies of harmonisation, which would have 

 been within the reach of musicians only, and probably biit few 

 of them. )iot including myself. 



Another point of warning: nu- experience is that if you 

 hear the same song from several different groups, not only the 

 'harmonies, but the melodies, not to say the detail of the words. 

 may be different each time, though the rhythm will probably 

 remain constant. This illustrates what I have said above. The 

 difference will often be due to diff'erent " parts " being really 

 independent melody, as in counterpoint ; but it is, of course, a 

 commonplace of folk-song, as anyone who has studied the 

 history of our older European melodies will acknowledge. 



Permit me to refer those interested to my paper of 1909. 

 published in the Bloemfontein Report, for the more general treat- 

 ment, and let me recall that I had come, even then, to the con- 

 clusion that the Bantu* scale was ])robab1y the Pentatonic or 

 Scotch. 



I v.'ill give the melody of " .Vnld Robin Gray," or rather 

 the melody, in the old Third mode, ending on I'l, to which Lady 

 Nairn wrote, as T understand, the words of that familiar song, 

 now, however, generally ])ublishe(l to another and ( I should say) 

 later tune : — 



m s d' Is m r d r d 



My father couldna work, and my mother 



s 1 d' 1 s fin r d r d 



I toiled day and night, but their bread I couldna win. 



r' in' r' d' 1 s m' r' d'l s m r 



Auld Rob maintained them baith, and with tears in his ee, 

 ms 1 d' 1 s in d' r' in' inf in 



Said, "Jenny, for their sakes, wilt thou marry me?" 



* Maybe even beyond their sphere in South Africa, An interesting book on 

 American Negro melodies, whose author I forget, gives at least lour 

 pentatonic in a collection of 15 or 20 : one especially interesting, with 

 words handed down from the singer's grandfather's grandmother, who 

 came as a heathen slave from Africa about 1700. Booker Washington's 

 "Souls of Black Folk'' gives some "sorrow songs" of Afro-Americans. 

 of which two at least are pentatonic. 



