Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1886-10-23
DOLCE FAR NIENTE.
AS SEEN AMONG OUR SOUTHERN
NEIGHBORS.
Their Vocal Accomplishments and
National Love for Music-A
Carnival Ball.
Especial Correspondence REconD-UsIox.l

his dinner, and the poorest and most ignor
ant of these people are natural musicians
They are fond of asserting-not without
truth-that music is but harmony in the
North, while here it is melody. Every.
body plays upon some sort of instrument
and in social life nobody ever refuses tc
sing. If | were asked the name OF the
Mexican national song, l should reply-not
one of the soul-stirring patriotic anthems
nor the pathetic g La Golondrina,n the
Home, Sweet Home" of Mexico-bui
III Trovatore." The words are upon every
tongue, as commonly as was Lily Dale u
and Mollie Darling" in the United States
few years ago. Men shout it, old women
Groom it, girls MARBLE it, boys whistle tin
short, it is far better known throughout the
country than the alphabet, for no Indian
jacdt is without some knowledge of it.
Besides singing it, the ladies play it on
guitars and mandolins, harps and pianos :;
the men strum it and toot it on every
brass silver and string instrument known
and unknown in the North.
Most of the musical instruments in Mexico
are imported from France or Spain. There
are few pianos except among the wealthy
of the larger cities, organs are generally
confined TO the churches, and mclodeons
are almost unknown. The most common
instruments are harps, guitars and
madolins among the ladies soft
toned saxaphones, saxalts, etc, for
sentimental serenades and reed
instruments for the Indians. The hum
blest pilddO has one, probably of his own
| manufacture, in shape and design precisely
like that with which the Greek god Pan is
pictured. Another instrument much in
use among the poorer classes is a cat-gut
strung bow, about six feet long. The per-
former puts his mouth over the middle OF
the bow, purses cut his lips, and twangs
the string with his forefingers, about is
one does jewsharp. l cannot speak very
highly of the result, though it produces a
harmonious succession of sound which
| serves well as an accompaniment for some
of the senseless folk-songS. But there is
no denying that such music as one finds
here indeed hath charms" to soothe
some savage breast. The indescribably
wierd and mournful airs produced by the
rural Indians on their flutes and harps of
reeds at the crucifxion of Holy Week and
other religious representations are war
ranted 10 draw tears from the most I'M
imaginative and the woman does not ex-
ist-unless she be deaf, blind and over 50
years OF age-who is not delighted with
the melodious strains Of the sombreroed
serenader beneath her window. By the
way,
THAT FAMOUS MEXICAN BAND
Which for long time have been holding
forth at the Minneapolis Exposition, are
about 10 return to the land of tee cacti.
In, II 10 S,eanrlaffnr, ~, haf
far northern city as to how many broken
hearts these swarthy sons OF the South will
leave behind, for it is said that not only
scores OF giddy girls, but numbers of young
ladies are hopelessly gone" on the beauti-
full eyes and brave uniforms OF the Next
cans. On dit, that not a few parents are
watching to see that no rope-ladders are let
down from upper windows in these last
nights before the fitting. for the Meyicans
have not been iHsensible 10 the charms of
the gentle Gringas, and late pilgrims upon
the streets of st. Paul and Minneapolis
may discover squads of them making soft
music beneath many windows.
The general idea that the military bands
which have been blowing their brains out
in the United States have made fortunes
thereby, is erroneous. True, the exposi-
| tons which employed them paid very
dearly for their services-but TO the Next
| can Government, not to the men them
selves. who have simply drawn their little
$40 per month, as at home.
In early times the Mexicansf attributed
worldly knowledge OF m to Tezltlipoca,
the sorcerer who learned it from :" the
Children of the Sun" Among the early
Aztecs the art of making music soon at
tanned high degree Of importance and be-
| came inseparable from the solemnization
of religious ceremonies. Relics exhumed
from the oldest mounds and burial places
show that the first attempts 10 construct
objects capable of emitting musical souncs
were made at very early day. These ar
cient instruments have been divided into
two classes-the one persuasive, the Other
wind A good sample of the latter was re-
Gently unearthed ne8r Guadalajara-a large
vase of red clay, highly polished, the
body ornamented by six grotesque masks
and resting on three gracefully curved feet
resembling the paws of cats, the outer rim
perforated by numerous small oTfceS that
describe the circumference of broad plain
radiating from the interior. Blown into,
the orifce emits musical sounds. Semi
tones may be produced by placing the fin
gers over the eyes of the masks, which are
hollow and connected by tubes with the
interior of the vase.
Persuasive instruments. which are prob
ably the most primitive, are represented III
several collections of antiquities by n sue
cession of rattles, formed in imitation of
serpent and perforated by small semi
circular openings, through which little
balls OF stone may be seen in the interior,
that are capable Of producing n soft,
musical sound by contact with the super
fetal structure.
have seen hollow clay figures gro
tesquely IMPLYING various animals, or
human beings in unnatural attitudes,
which contain tiny stone pellets and give
forth clicking sound when shaken also,
the frames OF small drums or tamborines,
from which the skin has long since worn
away, that were taken from the interior of
Cholula's pyramid. and must be at least
eight hundred years old. Talking with
Padre Sesia, the wellknown archgJlogiSt,
on the subject of the last-named instru-
ments, he informed me that
ENORMOUS DRUMS, EIGHT FEET HIGH,
Were used in the Aztec temples, where, by
striking them with sticks covered with
wool to soften the souuol they were made
to produce hollow rumbling, which was
supposed to be especially gratifying to the
gods and symbolic of the warning noise
that shall be precursory to the destruction
"a the world.
One of the choicest treasures of my own
cabinet IS a musical instrument, now some
what dilapidated, which was dug up near
the great Pyramid of the Sun, at San Juan
Teothuacan, the buried city" of The
| Toltecs 1t is of baked clay, colored black
| I'd red, abont two feet long and something
| il the form of flute, being hollow. with
al orifice at one end to blow into and arrow
| O smaller holes upon the back. In shape
| it is intended to represent some species of
sea animal-the head, with wide-open jaws,
| exa rgerated teeth, small eyes and fin-like
ears, row of feather-life fins, extending
down the sides, and upon its back sits in
state a little black Tlalac, the god Of
| waters"
Next to music, the Mexicans love flow
ers-roses and pansies most of all. Give o
| senorita one of these and she will respond
with fervent mil grdcias Thousand thanks
and vow never to forget the donor. YET
| few flowers are raised in the gardens
partly because so many grow wild. but
principally because the people are too indo-
| lent. Though any amount of land may be
used without rental for inclosng it, mos
Mexicans content themselves with patch
| no larger than an Irish bog-farm and 10