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THE AMERICAS MUSEUM JOURNAL 



nightly; food has been collected for days; and with all their finery the 

 natives come in schooners or canoes or on foot to lodge simply in the bar- 

 racks of the town. On the appointed day they are called group by group 

 into the public square which is bordered by hundreds of friends and rivals, 

 everyone stimulated by all the circumstances to do the utmost for the 

 honor of his district. It is at such times perhaps, when the singers may 

 num])er two hundred or more, that their music is heard to best advantage; 

 yet the setting of their own villages far away is somehow more pleasing and 

 congruous. If the chorals are analyzed, they fall into two general classes. 

 Most of them are in the major strain, and their words recount the prowess 

 of old-time warriors and tribes, or describe religious personages or events, 

 as in many of the modern chants. In these there is the quick beating 

 rhythm of the war-time tread or of the dance. More interesting are the 

 songs in minor key : they express the sorrow of a people wailing for those 

 killed by cyclone and tidal wave, or mourning for the old order which has 

 passed away forever. For well they know that the future has no place 

 for their fast-vanishing race, and they voice their sadness in wild melodies. 

 Each large section of Polynesia has its own characteristic forms of song 

 as well as of the dance. In Hawaii the "hula-hula" seems to have a great 

 effect upon the melodies; the "haka" of the Maori sets a measure that is 

 carried out in the songs of that people. In Samoa the natives sing as they 

 swing at the oars of their whale-boats during their journeys around the 

 shores of the islands, and a slower rhythm is thus imparted to their music. 

 In all groups of the islands however, the major and the minor chant can 

 be found, although differences in form and effect have been developed in 

 each case. 



The singers of Papara at the time of the annual feast, ready to bcKhi llu-ir cliaiit as 

 they sit in the great square surrounded by friends and rivals 



