156 



sentation of a native animal is become by de- 

 grees one of the types that has been preserved. 

 Imperfection and chance often produce forms, 

 the origin of which we gravely discuss, because 

 we believe they have arisen from a combination 

 of ideas, and a studied imitation. 



What the May pu res execute with the greatest 

 skill are grecques, in straight lines variously 

 combined, similar to those that we find on the 

 vases of Magna Grecia, on the Mexican edifices 

 at Mitla, and in the works of so many nations* 

 who, without communication with each other, 

 find alike a sensible pleasure in the symmetric 

 repetition of the same forms. Arabesques, 

 meanders, and grecques please our eyes, be- 

 cause the elements, of which their series is 

 composed, follow in rhythmic order. The eye 

 finds in this order, in the periodical return of the 

 same forms, what the ear distinguishes in the 

 cadenced succession of sounds and concords. 

 Can we then admit a doubt, that the feeling of 

 rhythm manifests itself in man at the first dawn 

 of civilization, and in the rudest essays of poe- 

 try and song ? 



The natives of Maypures, among whom the 

 women principally fabricate pottery, purify the 



kiema ; in Mbaja (the language of Choco), apolicanagigua- 

 ga ; in Moxo (the tongue spoken on the banks of the Ma- 

 more), samo ; in Chiquito, oquitopaquis ; in Guarany, mborebi. 



