AN OLD MEMORY 305 



with their oboe voices," and we usually describe 

 their strains as fluting: and flute and oboe are sister 

 voices in the choir. 



We may then imagine and look at birds as musical 

 instruments, which we ourselves invented, which 

 acquired from our hands and breath a life of their 

 own and wings to fly with; and now in their in- 

 dependent lives they have made a music of their 

 own but retain, mingled with it, some of the old 

 remembered sounds. 



Here I cannot resist the temptation of recalling 

 an old memory, an incident of my youth on the 

 pampas, for not only is it a story which I think worth 

 relating, but it is the best example I have ever met 

 with of the power of association a bird sound may 

 have. Such associations are never felt more than in 

 lonely desert places, especially when we are alone 

 with a savage or unhumanised nature which brings 

 the latent animism in us to life. 



I was at a dance in a gaucho's house, and going 

 into a small room adjoining the big living-room where 

 the dancing was in progress I found a dozen or four- 

 teen men, all gauchos, engaged in a hot argument 

 as to which life was best for a man — that of the 

 frontier and desert, or that of the settled districts, 

 where there was safety and human companionship. 

 Some held that the life of adventure and danger on 

 the frontier was the best for a man, as it taught him 

 to rely on himself for everything and brought out all 

 the latent power and cunning in him. It made him 

 quick to see danger, to fly in time or to strike before 



