that it was composed during the making as
that the singers were unconscious of their power. One sung at first what
may have been a well-known verse. While singing, another voice stole in,
and yet another, softly as shadows steal into twilight; and ere I knew it
all were in a great chorus, which fell away as mysteriously, to become
duos, trios,--changing in melody in strange, sweet, fitful wise, as the
faces seen in the golden cloud in the visioned aureole of God blend,
separate, burn, and fade away ever into fresher glory and tints
incarnadined.

Miss C. F. Gordon Cumming, after informing us that "it is utterly
impossible to give you the faintest shadow of an idea of the fascination
of Tahitian _himenes_," proceeds, as men in general and women in
particular invariably do, to give what the writer really believes is a
very good description indeed. 'T is ever thus, and thus 't will ever be,
and the description of these songs is so good that any person gifted with
imagination or poetry cannot fail to smile at the preceding disavowal of
her ability to give an idea.

These _himenes_ are not--and here such of my too expectant young
lady-readers as are careless in spelling will be sadly disappointed--in
any way connected with weddings. They are simply the natural music of
Tahiti, or strange and beautiful part-songs. "Nothing you have ever
heard in any other country," says our writer, "bears the slightest
resemblance to these wild, exquisite glees, faultless in time and
harmony, though apparently each singer introduces any variations which
may occur to him or to her. Very often there is no leader, and
apparently all sing according to their own sweet will. One voice
commences; it may be that of an old native, with genuine native words
(the meaning of which we had better not inquire), or it may be with a
Scriptural story, versified and sung to an air originally from Europe,
but so completely Tahitianized that no mortal could recognize it, which
is all in its favor, for the wild melodies of this isle are beyond
measure fascinating.

"After one clause of solo, another strikes in--here, there,
everywhere--in harmonious chorus. It seems as if one section devoted
themselves to pouring forth a rippling torrent of 'Ra, ra, ra--ra--ra!'
while others burst into a flood of 'La, la--la--la--la!' Some confine
their care to sound a deep, booming bass in a long-continued drone,
somewhat suggestive (to my appreciative Highland ear)