Music Hath Charms. 
117 
viously done, so did liis companions scrutinise the remaining houses, their 
collective owners being soon driven out of their possessions and forced 
to build themselves shelters outside the village so as to find cover from 
the continuous rain. Having slung their hammocks and made themselves 
quite at home, several of the usurpers appeared before Caberalli supplied 
with guns, howü, arrows, and fish-hooks, took their orders from him, and 
then went off in two corials. The whole procedure left no room for doubt 
but that they were the fishers and hunlters attached to the royal house- 
hold who had to provide for the mid day and evening meal, which soon 
turned out to be the case. 
402. We now considered it expedient to pay the chief our return 
visit: he received us seated and accepted our greetings far more conde- 
scendingly and amicably than we could have expected in view of his pre- 
vious conduct. But when Mr. King asked him about the mystery he had 
to communicate, he explained that lie would have to wait until my broth- 
er’s return. The dividing barriers of the imaginary etiquette were hence- 
forth broken and we now conversed with one another in friendly fashion. 
4011. Every day brought fresh company so that the number of guests 
gradually grew to such a size that there was soon no more room for erect- 
ing shelters in the free space surrounding the settlement, with the result 
that they now had to be constructed in the forest : the visitors already 
arrived seamed to want to stay lust as long as we did. 
404. The next troop of Warraus that followed the Arawaks was led 
by an Indian who, to my surprise, carried on his arm a violin set, it, is 
true, with only two strings. After the newcomers had built their benab, 
the musician sat in the middle of it and commenced playing his beloved 
instrument, on which however he never produced a modulation of note 
by pressure of the left-hand fingers, but just drew the bow over the free 
strings in longer or shorter sweeps. He had probably bought the instru- 
ment in town. Alongside the old violinist the 'whole assemblage mani- 
fested the utmost gaiety, which particularly of an evening after sundown 
increased to wild delight when old and young commenced dancing to this 
beautiful music : it was all the more interesting to me because T had 
never yet been able to watch the Indians taking their pleasure. The per- 
severance of the aged musician exceeded all my conceptions of patience — 
for hours at a time without a moment’s pause he sounded his two notes 
without moving a muscle of his face, or any other portion of his body but 
his arms. When he finally came to a standstill, he crossed over to us 
and asked for a glass of spirits as a. stimulant: if he did not receive it 
straight away no power could make him start playing again, whereupon 
the whole crowd of dancers naturally came up every time in a body to 
nrevail upon us with their combined entreaties, to satisfy the obstinate 
old artist’s demands. 
405. Properly speaking, every Warrau settlement possesses its own 
music instructor, Hoho-hit, who teaches the young boys and men of the 
place to blow on a sort of Oboe which is made out of a longer or shorter 
piece of bambu, at the upper end of which is fixed a thin mouth-piece of 
reed with a longer or shorter glottis. The notes produced on this wind- 
instrument much resemble those of the Russian national instrument. 
Almost every evening Ihe young people gather around their music-teacher 
and under his leadership hold a convert in the middle of the village. Ac- 
