THE DISCOVERY OF MUSIC.

Lyell Times and Central Buller Gazette, Volume VI, Issue 263, 6 March 1886, Page 4

THE DISCOVERY OF MUSIC.

Some attribute the discovery to the sounds 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 Braham was travelling to the court of an illustrious rajah lie rested about the middle of the day under the shade of a mulberry tree, on the top of which he beheld a mischievous monkey climbing from bough to bough, till, by a sudden slip, he fell upon a sharp-pointed shoot, which instantly ripped up his belly and left his entrails suspended in the tree, while the unlucky animal fell, breathless, on the dust of death. Some time after this, as the Braham was returning, he accidently sat down in the same place, and recollecting the circumstances, looked up and saw that the entrails 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 walking-stick, 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 int<* 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, pursihng the bent of their inclinations, constructed instruments of various forms, according to their individual fancies; and to this whimsical accident we are indebted for the tuneful ney and the beart-exhilaratiug rabab, and, in short, all the other instruments of wind and strings.—Tales of a Parrot.