GENERAL ACCOUNT HEDLEY. 57 



and stirring music are now, I am told, entirely forgotten 

 except by a few of the oldest inhabitants, yet Mr. O'Brien 

 tells me they survive on Vaitupu still. On asking the inter- 

 preter for a translation of the song, I am answered that such 

 a one is the story of Lot's wife being turned to salt, another 

 is in praise of the Bible or composed of passages from the Scrip- 

 tures, another subject is a battle between England and France ; 

 Captain Webb's feat of swimming across the Straits of Dover 

 forms, oddly enough, the theme of yet another. All these songs 

 are sung squatting on the ground, anyone attempting to rise is 

 promptly suppressed by the Native Teacher. Appropriate gesti- 

 culation is given with hands and arms, paddles are swung, axes 

 are lifted, guns are aimed, and strokes are swum in unison. 

 Time is marked by incessant clapping of the hands, for variety 

 the palm is occasionally slapped against the arm, the thigh, or 

 upon the ground. As the fervour grows the music sinks and 

 swells, time beats grow faster and faster till the words and notes 

 cannot be more quickly repeated, and in a paroxysm of clapping 

 a dead stop is reached by the breathless and perspiring chorus. 

 Watching in the lamplight the soft, brown arms tossing with the 

 cadence of the song, the waving hair, the gleaming teeth and 

 glistening eyes of a score of handsome women, one can imagine 

 to what a pitch of excitement the dances, the real dances of the 

 olden time, roused this impressionable people. The music is 

 simple, yet thrilling, and to most Europeans though attractive is 

 singularly evanescent. I, for one, could never afterwards recall 

 a tune however much I had enjoyed it. Hickson has noted a 

 similar impression of savage music.* The natives on the other 

 hand seem to find as much difficulty in catching European tunes 

 as we do in recollecting theirs. An exception, however, 1 noted 

 in "Ta-ra-ra Boom-de-ay," which was a favourite and correctly 

 repeated air on Funafuti. 



A popular song on Funafuti, an importation I believe from 

 Samoa, runs as follows : 



E piu i se sevi lou manamea, 

 E i ai i le maunga o Peteri, 

 Ina ta tuu ia Lepanona, 

 La'u ava ina ta tuu. 



O loo silasila i faamalama 



O loo pupula inai lona tino 



Ina ta tuu, <kc. 



Internal evidence, reference to Lebanon, <kc., show the words 

 to be a modern composition, the tune is however probably older. 

 I am indebted to the kindness and musical talent of my friend, 



* Hickson-A Naturalist in North Celebes, 1889, p. 79. 



