CHAPTER V - PHYSICAL AND PSYCHICAL INFLUENCE OF MUSIC

Summary

Among savages the influence of music is far more distinctly noticeable than among people in a higher state of civilisation. We cannot say that it is always stronger and deeper, nor does it seem to last for a long time, but it is brought to light in a more naive and natural way, and is therefore a more suitable and welcome object of psychological observation.

It is certainly not a mere accidental coincidence of circumstances when some African tribes dance and sing more frequently at the time of the “palm wine season,” or when the Ainu on the island of Yezo dance more at the opening of the hunting and fishing season. The Bechuanas indulge in singing more especially at the time of the rains and of the harvest. Burchell supposes that this custom has its origin in those feelings of gladness which would be so naturally excited by the fall of copious and frequent showers in a land where all hopes of an abundant crop of corn depend wholly on the quantity of rain. The Lincoln tribes in Australia do not allow a single evening to pass without singing; on these occasions their features show such unmistakable signs of joy and happiness that one would scarcely believe how these good-natured countenances could be capable of the highest expression of rage and fury.