Page 68 - Travels in Arabis (Vol I)

TIL] TRAVELS IN OMAN. 2.9

ragement and recreation, whenever work is
going on, about ten of their number are se­

lected to sing to the remainder. A boy, with
a sharp tenor voice, usually leads the concert,
and to him his comrades reply in a deep,

bass cadence, accompanying their voices

with several rude instruments of music, and
joining in a wild and picturesque sort of

dance. These instruments are rude ; one re­
sembles the tom-tom of Hindustan ; another,

still more simple, the tambourine of Europe;
but, when unprovided with these, I have ob­

served them beating time upon one of their
copper cooking dishes. To the European,

scarcely any combination of sounds can ap­
pear farther removed from music, or, indeed,

more thorougly discordant, yet on these
Africans their effects appear indescribably

exciting. The expression of the face, the
contortions of the limbs and body, the yells

with which their dancing gestures are ac­
companied, and the length of time they will

continue the exercise, in fact until they sink
down in a state of exhaustion, denote an in­

tense sympathy with sounds to which we are

equally strangers.