744 Transactions. 
who favoured me with a specimen of the songs at Tonga-Tabboo, has like- 
wise obligingly communicated to me another of the New Zeeland music, 
which will be sufficient to give an idea of the taste of the people. He did - 
not visit the island of Tanna, but assured me that there appeared to be — 
some display of genius in the New Zeeland tunes, which soared very far 
above the wretched humming of the Taheitian, or even the four notes of 
the people of the Friendly Islands. 
“ Of this tune they continue to sing the two first bars till the words 
their song are at an end, and then they close with the last. Sometimes 
they also sing an underpart, which is a third lower, except the two 
notes, which are unisons. 
~ The same gentleman likewise took notice of a kind of dirge-like mel 
choly song, relating to the death of j 
aghéé, māttě ăwhāy Tūpāyă !* 
Departed, dead, alas ! Tupaya ! b 
“ The first effusions of grief are not loquacious ; the only idea to whic 
we сап give utterance is that of our loss, which takes the form of à com: 
plaint. Whether the simplicity of the tune is equally agreeable, or We 
judged, is a question which I cannot pretend to determine. The p 
seurs ın music must acquit or condemn the New-Zeelanders. 
a-mhay Tu - pa -ya 
& They descend at the close from C to ihe octave bel 
resembling the sliding of a finger along the finger-board on the 
T shall now dismiss this subject with the following observation, 
taste for music of the New-Zeelanders, and their superiority in this 
to other nations in the South Seas, are to me stronger proofs, in favour. 
с cond than all the idle eloquence of philosophers in their cabinets 
invalida лу. c 
et 
Cook's remarks in 1770 are of less value, because less detailed (vol. $ 
pau c... in their song they keep tune with such exactness 
* It із not known what is the signifi ificance here of the signs for long and 800 
7 and ~, since the notes given are all the same length. 
