“The Staub-bach” is a narrow Stream, which, after a long
course on the heights, comes to the sharp edge of a somewhat
overhanging precipice, overleaps it with a bound, and, after
a fall of 930 feet, forms again a rivulet. The vocal powers
of these musical Beggars may seem to be exaggerated; but this
wild and savage air was utterly unlike any sounds I had ever
heard; the notes reached me from a distance, and on what
occasion they were sung I could not guess, only they seemed to
belong, in some way or other, to the Waterfall—and reminded
me of religious services chanted to Streams and Fountains in
Pagan times. Mr. Southey has thus accurately characterised
the peculiarity of this music: ‘While we were at the Waterfall,
some half-score peasants, chiefly women and girls, assembled
just out of reach of the Spring, and set up—surely, the wildest
chorus that ever was heard by human ears,—a song not of
articulate sounds, but in which the voice was used as a mere
instrument of music, more flexible than any which art could
produce,—sweet, powerful, and thrilling beyond description.’—See Notes to “A Tale of Paraguay.”
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