ACROSS UNKNOWN SOUTH AMERICA 
Bororos swung their bodies forward and backward, not 
unlike the howling dervishes of Egypt, uttering occasional 
high and strident notes. This was generally done before 
starting en masse on a hunt, when a feast also took place. 
The women never joined in the songs, but the boys 
did. Even if their voices were not powerful enough to 
produce lengthy ululations, they spiritedly took part in 
the violent undulations of the body. 
The Bororos were great lovers of minute detail. So 
it was that, in their music, strange, weird effects were 
attempted, wonderfully complicated. 
Bororo singing occasionally took the form of a 
recitative, with the chorus joining in the refrain — this 
principally when chanting the merits of a deceased per¬ 
son, or during some calamity in the aide g a, or village. 
The musical instruments I was able to find in the 
various settlements of Bororos I visited consisted chiefly 
of single, double, or treble gourds, the latter with per fora-' 
tions at the two ends, used as wind instruments and pro¬ 
ducing deep bass notes. The single gourd had a cane at¬ 
tachment intended to emit shrill high notes. Then there 
were other dried gourds filled with pebbles, which rattled 
as they were shaken at the end of a long handle to which 
the gourds were fastened. 
The cane flutes were slightly more elaborate, with 
ornaments of rings of black feathers. There was only one 
rectangular slit in the centre of the flute, so that only one 
note could be produced — as was the case with most of 
their rudimentary musical instruments. 
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