IMITATIVE POWERS 
their eyes. Even in conversation the Bororos would often 
repeat, accurately enough, noises they heard around them, 
such as the crashing of falling trees, of rushing water, of 
distant thunder, or foreign words which caught their 
fancy. I was amazed at their excellent memory in that 
direction. 
There were no professional musicians in the Bororo 
country in the strict sense of the word, the harih being 
the only person who might, at a stretch, be put down as 
one. Nor was anybody taught music. They were one 
and all musicians without knowing it, or at least thought 
they were, a belief not monopolized by the Bororos only. 
They all sang. They learned to sing gradually by 
hearing and imitating their elders. 
I think that with the Bororos the steps of their dances 
had been suggested by the rhythm of the music, and not 
the other way round. They preferred music to dancing, 
for which latter exercise they showed little aptitude. 
Although their melodies would appear appallingly mel¬ 
ancholy to European ears, it did not follow that they were 
so to them. On the contrary, some which had a most 
depressing effect on me — and I felt like throwing at 
them anything handy but heavy to interrupt the melody 
— seemed to send the performers into a state of absolute 
beatitude. They kept up those melodies interminably, 
repeating the same short theme dozens of times, hundreds, 
in fact, if nothing happened to stop them. When 
once they had started on one of those songs, it was 
difficult to switch them on to another. They loved to 
hear it again and again. 
The time of their music was “ common ” time, slightly 
modified according to the wording of the song. It gen¬ 
erally altered into a triple time when the words were of a 
liquid quality in their pronunciation, and a dual time when 
sung low and slowly. 
When singing, especially during ululations, the 
vol. I. — 14 209 
