THE DISCOVERY OF MUSIC.

Lake Wakatip Mail, Issue 1516, 22 January 1886, Page 3

THE DISCOVERY OF MUSIC.

Some attribute the discovery to the pounds made by a large stone against the frame of an oil-press ; and others, to the noise of meat when roasting; but the sages of Hind (India) are of opinion that it originated from the following accident: As a learned Brahman was travelling to the court of an illustrious raja he rested about the middle of the day under the shade of a mulberry tree, on the top o e which ho beheld a mischievous monkey climbing from bouga to bough, till, by a sudden slip, he fell upon a sharppointed shoot, which instantly ripped up his belly and left his entails suspended in the tree, while the unlucky animal fell, breathless, on the dust of death. Some time after this, as the 13 rah man was returning, he accidentally sat down in the sime place, and recollecting the circumstances, looked up, and saw that the entails were dried, and yielded a harmonious sound every time the wind gently impelled them against the branches. Charmed at the singularity of the adventure, he took them down, and after binding them to the two ends of his walkingstick, touched them with a small twig, by which he discovered that the sound was much improved. When he got home he fastened the staff to another piece of wood, which was hollow, and by the addition of a bow, strung with part of his own beard, converted it to a complete instrument. In succeeding ages the science received considerable improvements. After the addition of a bridge, purer tones were extracted; and the different students, pursuing the bent of their inclinations, constructed instruments of various form 3, according to their individual fancies ; and to this whimsical accident we are indebted for the tuneful ney and the heart-exhilarating rabab' and, in short, all the other instruments of wind and 'string!,— lalu of a JFtow*