N 



468 



REMARKS 



O N 



T H E 



ARTS 



AND 

 SPIENCES 



Taheitean has no more than three 



and 



pahle 



of a variety of notes, and the mufic they execute upon this inftru- 

 ment is but a poor humming : even their vocal mufic has no greater 

 compafs than three or four notes. 



however fome of their fongs 



were not quite difagreeabk. 



The' inhabitants of the Friendly 



Illands are better verfed in mufic than the Taheiteans, and the 



of their women had fomething pleafmg 



our 



when 



firfl heard them 



E'Aoowhe or Middleburgh. The inhab 



Zeeland have in their fongs greater variation 



of Tanna * and New- 



and extent, which certainly intimate better and more improved 



talents for this branch of the polite arts. 



The VERSES of the Taheiteans are always delivered by fmging, 



the true antient Greek ftyle 



and what is ftill more remarkable 



of the 



we found that many of thefe verfes were the produdiions 

 moment, for we obferved that their poetry had fome relation to the 

 perfons on board our fhip, or to fome tranfadions which happened 



during 



{lay 



but they had likewife many coupl 



fong 



which had no reference to the perfons or tranfadions occafioned 



the 



Whe 



' as it were from the point lying to the Eafl of the harbour, and this circumilauce feems to 



MtiJ^i 



of their Deity. 



We 



point 



place by arms. See likewife George Former's Voyage, vol. ii. p. 300, and 362; 



y 



