Each Kanaka on the beach had a pine, flint, steel, tinder, a hand of
tobacco, and a jack-knife, which he always carried about with him.
That which strikes a stranger most peculiarly is their style of
singing. They run on, in a low, guttural, monotonous sort of chant,
their lips and tongues seeming hardly to move, and the sounds
modulated solely in the throat. There is very little tune to it, and
the words, so far as I could learn, are extempore. They sing about
persons and things which are around them, and adopt this method when
they do not wish to be understood by any but themselves; and it is
very effectual, for with the most careful attention I never could
detect a word that I knew. I have often heard Mr. Mannini, who was the
most noted improvisatore among them, sing for an hour together, when
at work in the midst of Americans and Englishmen; and, by the
occasional shouts and laughter of the Kanakas, who were at a distance,
it was evident that he was singing about the different men that he was
at work with. They have great powers of ridicule, and are excellent
mimics; many of them discovering and imitating the peculiarities of
our own people, before we had seen them ourselves.
Pages:
242
243
244
245
246
247
248
249
250
251
252
253
254
255
256
257
258
259
260
261
262
263
264
265
266