Message of the Bells

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXIII, Issue 22350, 22 February 1936, Page 39 (Supplement)

Message of the Bells

QTJR recent mechanised years have helped the world—the western world, at least —to forget and neglect bells, to make so much noise with modern machines that the bells sometimes only add to the general confusion of tho large city, writes Lucia Crisola Warren in the Christian Science Monitor. Yet there are ancient towns and quiet places—there are special times—when the populace turns with one consent to the commemoration of old and colourful customs, loved ceremonies and joyful jubilations. Then it is that the bells come again into their own. Those evening bells! those evening bells 1 How many a tale their musio tells 1 Gone is the day when young and old followed homeward the signal of the curfew, covered fires and went to bgd. Gone is the oven bell by which the lord of the manor in medieval Europe told the women of his town that his oven was hot for their bread. Gone is the hotelkeeper's bell, intended to direct travellers from out the darkness. Good roads and street lights and roadside signs have taken its place. Gone are the bells used to summon Romans to the baths; gone is the postman's bell asking for letters; gone the dustman's musical notification that he will collect one's rubbish. Gone is the town crier's bell and tho colourful and picturesque crier himself, for clocks and watches now tell the time of day, and posters, advertisements, newspapers and telephone and radio make known the news and business. '.Gone is the glamour of these ancient uses, but scribes' bells still ring in antiquated towns of Arabia, where literacy is not common and letters are entrusted to professionals. The ragman still sounds his boll down the alleys of some cities, as does the scissors grinder. The muflin man still appears occasionally in England, ringing his handbell. Navies still use bells on their ships to tell the of day and sound signals. On the Long Trek Bells are used on animals nearly the world over. The kitten at your feet tinkles her bell. The lead cow in your herd carries a bell to tell her whereabouts. Tho goats on the hills of Switzerland leap nimbly and make merry with their bells. The elephants of the circus ring ludicrously tiny bells and those of the jungles of Ceylon and India wear larger ones, by whose sound each driver can find his elephant after the animal's night of forage. The camels of the desert make known their movements by bells, perhaps a cluster of

three rigged one inside another, so •three notes are distinguishable as the wearer patiently rises to his long trek. One writer attributes the early manufacture of bells to Tubal-Cain's artifice, mentioned in Genesis 4:22, but this is surmise. Bells are known to have been made, centuries before the Christian era, m Asia, Europe and the Americas, but in the latter they were small. King David, when he danced before the Ark in his rejoicing, was accompanied by tinkling bells. Ancient Ninevah, when excavated, yielded up strings of small cast-metal bells, perhaps worn by a dancer, or used on the dress of a dignitary, or on a warrior's armour. In Early China It is not known xvhen India, China, Burma, first made large bells by welding four rectangular pieces of metal together in box-like shape, nor when later they began casting bells of metal; but indications place the making of bells in China about 27 centuries before the Christian era. Bells have been part of the daily life of Asiatic millions, who hear their ringing in the early dawn from the temples on the hills, who know bells as ptwt of their worship, and who, as they pray, sound them so that Buddha will hear. Although Brahmin and Confucian have bells for uses that include worship, Mahommedans, of all groups of religionists, rule bells out of their lands. This is because of their belief that the bell's sound will disturb wandering souls in the air. When tho Turks conquered a Christian land the minaret was substituted for the bell tower, the muezzin for the bell. The people of the Balkan Peninsula, including the Croats and Slovenes, felt keenly this deprivation. Some succeeded in buiying their bells in the earth to save them, but the loss of many was mourned by pooplo who loved them dearly. Call to Prayer Ten years after the World War, when bells were being replaced, some made from cannon, there was a ceremony in Gradets accompanying the mounting of two bells. The president of the Croatian Peasant Party presided and said: " Our bells have called us to pray, to work and to rest. And how joyfully they have sung on Christmas Eves and on Easter morns 1 Our bolls have shared all our joys and sorrows. They have increased our happjness and lessened our grief. . . . Our bells, these new bells, will peal with tidings of liberty and righteousness. They will sing 'Hosanna to tho Highest, Hosanna to tho Son of David, Hosanna to my people I' " By tho middle of the sixth century tho Christian Church was elevating its bells that had stood on wheels or other devices within the places of worship or at their doors, and was placing them in turrets, on gables, or in towers. The titled houses of Europe ereoted towors

ITS PLACE IN HISTORY

and bells for signalling and protective purposes; and in case of attack bells wore much sought after, for the signals to the people were in tlio bellringer's hands. Towers, the beautiful singing towers of Europe, were born because of bells, and they grew more elaborate, more architectural, more exquisite through the Middle Ages. Upon them and their bells were lavished the holies, the_ loves, the gifts, s the sacrifices of Christians during many centuries. The beautiful campaniles of Italy, 6uch as Giotto's famous tower in Florence, the Leaning Tower of Pisa, St. Mark's in Venice; these and tboir lovely bells have inspired much praise in prose and poetry, and much can be said for other towers of Europe. Carillons ol Flanders Christianity carried bells into all other lands where its followers penetrated; North and South America, Africa, Australia and the islands of the 6eas. Where the Spanish went in the Americas were built missions and churches, all with several bells. The French and English likewise introduced their bells, till nearly all churches in the United States were equipped with at least one. The bells of America also have been influenced by the carillons of Flanders. Russia made the biggest bells of history. It began casting in the sixteenth century, and before the next there are said to have been over 6000 bells in Moscow alone. Bells were bought so readily that outdoor markets were available where one could select a bell to give to one's church and thereby receive great merit. Within the Kremlin the remarkable tower of Ivan Veliki carries the largest ringing; bell in the world, estimated to weigh about 128 tons, and more than 30 other heavy bells have been counted hanging above it. Soviet Procedures Near the base of the tower stands the world's largest bell, the Tsar Kolokol, cast in 1733 by order of the Empress Anna. It weighs approximately 180 tons. It was cracked in the pit where it was founded and, after more than a century, was with great difficulty raised and placed upon a heavy brick wall in the cathedral square, where it was used as a chapel. The anti-religious procedures of the Soviet Government have ruined many churches and bells. Some have been melted for their bronze; some sold. Valuable, beautifully embossed relics of history ruthlessly done away with! The land that once overwhelmingly loved bells now sweeps them outl England has been consistently and deeply a land that loves bells, and, while not so lavish in providing them as Riissia, a canon of the English

Church early ruled that " parishes must furnish bells and bell ropes." These bells, unlike those of most countries, are mounted to swing and send out their full reverberations through the manipulations of well-trained bellmen. " Ringing the Changes " Before the end of the tenth century bells in a towor were multiplying and, while first rung in sequence, called " rounds," the English soon evolved an arrangement whereby there was a change in the order of ringing one bell in each round, all according to a mathematical pattern. This method of ringing, called " changes," became increasingly popular during four centuries and, in 1868, eight members of the College Youth (a ringing society) were locked in the belfrey of St. Matthew's Church, Bethnal Green, and rang 15,840 changes without stopping or making an error. For nino hours and twelve minutes their keenest attention was given to the order of the changes, while every muscle stood at attention and functioned as though part of a machine.

Some do not care for the clangour of swinging bells, and some say it is not music, but another writes: " It is pure music, and it flings itself into tho sky for you to catch and mako your own if you can. What it means is what it means to you."