1834.] Scientific Intelligence. 249 



Captain Willard asserts under the division 'time,' notwithstanding the 

 authority of Tartini and Dr. Burney, that no musician can execute measures of 

 five notes in a bar,—" There is beautiful melody in Hindustan comprising seven 

 and other unequal number of notes in a measure, and that they have musicians in 

 abundance that are able to execute it." We should much doubt this fact. 



Indian Harmony is mostly confined to a monotonous repetition of the keynote 

 during the flights of their vocal or instrumental melody ; for it is melody which has 

 ever constituted the soul of the national music in India as among the Greeks and 

 Egyptians. Our author has the following general observations on this subject. 



1. Hindoostanee melodies are short, lengthened by repetition and variations. 



2. They all partake of the nature of what is denominated by us Rondo, the 

 piece being invariably concluded with the first strain, and sometimes with the first 

 bar, or at least with the first note of that bar. 



3. A bar, or measure, or a certain number of measures, is frequently repeated 

 with slight variation, almost ad lib. 



4. There is as much liberty allowed with respect to pauses, which may be length- 

 ened at pleasure, provided the time be not disturbed. 



The author corrects SirWsi. Jones' rendering of rag by the expression 'mode, 

 or key, for which the Hindus have the distinct word fhat : — rag signifies rather 

 ' tune ' or ' air.' 



The personification of rags and raginees, and the series of pictures called ragma- 

 las, are too well known to require any remarks ; it would have increased the 

 interest of the work to European readers had the descriptions of these been accom- 

 panied by engravings of a selected series of drawings, but we are aware that this 

 could not have been easily done in India. The sixteen melodies set to music (al- 

 ways excepting the impossible 7-quaver airs) form however, an interesting part of 

 the author's labour ; the effect of metre is strikingly marked in some of these airs. 

 We cannot resist pointing out the close resemblance of the 9th (a Persian gha- 

 zal,) to the hexameter verse ; by transposing the first and second section iu each 

 line and adding one long foot the metre becomes perfect : 

 Ashvagari dil burda za man (to) jalva numai, 

 Kajkulahi zarrin kamari (ham) tanga qubai, 

 Man bavasalash ky rasam in (ast) has ki bar&hash, 

 Khaka sh&vam rfizi (td) bosam (man) kafi p£f. 

 which may be anglicized in the metre of the original ; — 

 (Dil burda za man — ashvagari — jalva num^f, &c.) 



Oh thief of my heart, eye me not so — shining so brightly 

 With head dress awry — girdle of gold — boddice bound tightly — 

 When, when shall we meet ! Ah not in life — not till my ashes 

 Lie strew'd in thy path — kissing thy feet — treading so lightly. 

 2. — Representation in Roman Characters of the principal Asiatic Alphabets. 

 Mr. Trevelyan has done an eminent service to literature, and to the Asiatic 

 Society in particular, by standing forth as the advocate of Sir William Jones' 

 mode of expressing native characters in the Roman Alphabet. The cause had 

 nearly become desperate, both from the influence and popularity of the Gilchris- 

 tian system*, and from the adoption of a modification of the latter by the Gov- 



* These are the only two radically opposed systems, taking the characters of the 

 vowels as the most obvious test : the numerous modifications of the consonants are of 

 minor importance. 



K K 



