ss it), they are apprehensive of a storm, as European sailors
foretell a gale from the sharpness of her horns. These are both, in part,
the consequence of an unusual clearness in the air, which, proceeding
from an extraordinary alteration of the state of the atmosphere, may
naturally be followed by a violent rushing of the circumjacent parts to
restore the equilibrium, and thus prove the prognostic of high wind.
During an eclipse they make a loud noise with sounding-instruments to
prevent one luminary from devouring the other, as the Chinese, to
frighten away the dragon, a superstition that has its source in the
ancient systems of astronomy (particularly the Hindu) where the nodes of
the moon are identified with the dragon's head and tail. They tell of a
man in the moon who is continually employed in spinning cotton, but that
every night a rat gnaws his thread and obliges him to begin his work
afresh. This they apply as an emblem of endless and ineffectual labour,
like the stone of Sisyphus, and the sieves of the Danaides.

With history and chronology the country people are but little acquainted,
the memory of past events being preserved by tradition only.

MUSIC.

They are fond of music and have many instruments in use among them, but
few, upon inquiry, appear to be original, being mostly borrowed from the
Chinese and other more eastern people; particularly the kalintang, gong,
and sulin. The violin has found its way to them from the westward. The
kalintang resembles the sticcado and the harmonica; the more common ones
having the cross-pieces, which are struck with two little hammers, of
split bamboo, and the more perfect of a certain composition of metal
which is very sonorous. The gongs, a kind of bell, but differing much in
shape and struck on the outside, are cast in sets regularly tuned to
thirds, fourth, fifth, and octave, and often serve as a bass, or under
part, to the kalintang. They are also sounded for the purpose of calling
together the inhabitants of the village upon any particular occasion; but
the more ancient and still common instrument for this use is a hollowed
log of wood named katut. The sulin is the Malayan flute. The country
flute is called serdum. It is made of bamboo, is very imperfect, having
but few stops, and resembles much an instrument described as found among
the people of Otaheite. A single hole underneath is covered with the
thumb of the left hand, and the hole nearest the end at which