 act of working a frightful incantation.
    What was the meaning or purpose of this custom, whether it was practised
merely as a diversion, or whether it was a religious exercise, a sort of family
prayers, I never could discover.
    The sounds produced by the natives on these occasions were of a most
singular description; and had I not actually been present, I never would have
believed that such curious noises could have been produced by human beings.
    To savages, generally, is imputed a guttural articulation. This, however, is
not always the case, especially among the inhabitants of the Polynesian
Archipelago. The labial melody with which the Typee girls carry on an ordinary
conversation, giving a musical prolongation to the final syllable of every
sentence, and chirping out some of the words with a liquid, bird-like accent,
was singularly pleasing.
    The men, however, are not quite so harmonious in their utterance; and when
excited upon any subject, would work themselves up into a sort of wordy
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 that 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 Typeean 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 afterward 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
