rdy
paroxysm, during which all descriptions of rough-sided sounds were
projected from their mouths, with a force and rapidity which was
absolutely astonishing.

* * * * * * * * * *

Although these savages are remarkably fond of chanting, still they appear
to have no idea whatever of singing, at least as the art is practised
among other nations.

I never shall forget the first time I happened to roar out a stave in the
presence of the noble Mehevi. It was a stanza from the "Bavarian
Broom-seller." His Typean majesty, with all his court, gazed upon me in
amazement, as if I had displayed some preternatural faculty which Heaven
had denied to them. The king was delighted with the verse; but the chorus
fairly transported him. At his solicitation, I sang it again and again,
and nothing could be more ludicrous than his vain attempts to catch the
air and the words. The royal savage seemed to think that by screwing all
the features of his face into the end of his nose, he might possibly
succeed in the undertaking, but it failed to answer the purpose; and in
the end he gave it up, and consoled himself by listening to my repetition
of the sounds fifty times over.

Previous to Mehevi's making the discovery, I had never been aware that
there was anything of the nightingale about me; but I was now promoted to
the place of court minstrel, in which capacity I was afterwards
perpetually called upon to officiate.

* * * * * * * * * *

Besides the sticks and the drums, there are no other musical instruments
among the Typees, except one which might appropriately be denominated a
nasal flute. It is somewhat longer than an ordinary fife, is made of a
beautiful scarlet-coloured reed, and has four or five stops, with a large
hole near one end, which latter is held just beneath the left nostril. The
other nostril being closed by a peculiar movement of the muscles about the
nose, the breath is forced into the tube, and produces a soft dulcet
sound, which is varied by the fingers running at random over the stops.
This is a favourite recreation with the females, and one in which Fayaway
greatly excelled. Awkward as such an instrument may appear, it was, in
Fayaway's delicate little hands, one of the most graceful I have ever
seen. A young lady in the act of tormenting a guitar, strung about her
neck by a couple of yards of blue ribbon, is not half so engaging.