The tribes ol' the outer Teva disLrittts gatlieriug at Papeete lor their aiiiuuil feast, l>riui^- 

 ing their gifts and their allegiance to the hereditary head chief 



THE SONGS OF TAHITI 



By llcnry E. Cram pf on 



During Pi'ofessor Cranipton's voyages to Polynesia for biological research, lie visited 

 Tahiti four times and becoming interested in the native songs made phonographic records in 

 several districts. It is hoped that in the near future these records, some fifty in number, 

 may be transcrit)cd and made available for a l>roader usefulness. — Editor. 



OXPj of the most m;irked characteristics ol" all the nati\'es of Polynesia 

 is their lo\'e for music. Their happy adolescent character finds 

 ready and natural means of expression in the choral sinnint;- in 

 which they greatly delight, and in the active rhythmic dances with which 

 they so often accompany their songs. The traveler soon becomes inter- 

 ested in these "arts of pleasure" that are practiced in characteristic ways 

 hy the Tahitians, Hawaiiaiis, Sainoans and Maoris ahoN'e all oth(T ])eoj)le 

 of the Pacific. 



It may he that their singing is first heard at night when arri\ing 

 at one of their primitive villages far distant from the mixed civilization of 

 commercial towns. In a large thatched hut or a more elaborate "church" 

 the natives gather after the e\ening meal to sing perhaps all the night 

 through. From a little distance the music sounds as though it were pro- 

 duced hy a splendid reed organ or hy an orchestra of wood-wind instruments. 

 Through the open dooi'way the people may he descried in the half liglit, 

 seated in rows, with the women toward the front, the older men next and the 

 youths towai-(l the hack. The last-named drone out the full deep notes of 

 the lowest hass, thus gi\ing to the whole harmony the organ-point support 

 M'hich so impresses the hearer even at his first experience. The older men 

 weave their tenor strains through the harmony of the song in complete 

 accord with the other voices or, singly, they may sing a pecidiar erratic 

 strain of a few bars before they I'ctm'u to the conventional part which is 



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