The Bennington banner. [volume] (Bennington, Vt.) 1858-1894, 1894-03-16
INDIA's MUSICAL GRASS.
Wonderful Effects by Cunning FaISirs For
Pooling the Superstitious.

wonderful Effects by Cunning Falkirs For
Pooling the Superstitious.
There yet remain certain corners of the
earth where natural wonders of the ex-
ceptional sort await the inspection of
the more adventurous and curiously in
clined One of these as yet generally I'M
explored corners lies not far from the old
temple caves of Bagh, in India Here
there is a lake, in which is a small islet.
Around the shores of the lake, and of the
islet especially, is a dense growth of reed
grass. The forest surrounding both svarms
with the deadly serpent tribes and other
dangerous beasts of prey peculiar to the
jungle.
The islet itself Is but tiny one, and
when viewed at distance looks like a
pyramidal basket of verdUre, so overgrown
Is 1t with the tall reeds. The only inhab-
Gants of this isolated spot are the ubiqui-
tous monkeys, who rendezvous among a
few mango trees that grow in the midst
This reed grass is seven or eight feet high
and plumed at the top, the color effect of
which is as of "a waving sea of black, yell
low, blue and especially of rose and green"
But the wonder does not become appar-
ent until the evening wind begins to blow
Then the gigantic reeds awake and begin
to toss uneasily, and suddenly in the gen.
eral silence of the forest around there is
somewhere let loose whole river of mu-
steal sound, first like that of an orchestra
"tuning up" and then a food of harmo-
ny follows, and the whole island resounds
as with the strains of hundreds of Eolian
harps. 1t swells and deepens, filling the
air with indescribable melody, now sad
and COlnt1,p M of F,,n
now rising and trilling upon the air like
the song of the nightingale, to die away
into silence with long drawn sigh.
Then again the sounds rise, clashing
like hundreds of silver bells, then sudden
,ly changing to the beartrending howl of
wolf deprived of her young. A gay ia
rantelle fellows; then comes the articulate
sound of the human voice to the vague,
majestic accords of violoncello-anda all
this represented in every direction by hun
dreds of responsive echoes. Let the wind
but rise, the sounds pour and roll in I'M
restrainable, overwhelming energy-com-
parable to nothing but a storm in the open
sea. You hear the wind tearing through
the rigging, the swish and turmoil and
laundering shock of the maddened waves.
lull, and the scene is changed to the
dim lit vault of cathedral, throbbing to
the long drawn roll of organ notes, end.
ing perhaps in the clangor of an alarla
bell. And SO it goes until your ears ache
and your head reels under the strain.
On the opposite side of the lake you will
see the fires of the superstitious natives,
who congregute to bring offerings to the
Indian god Pan and his hosts, who are
held responsible for the sounds evoked.
The cunning takirs alone know better, but
because of certain benefits that accrue to
themselves from these reverential offerings
do not care to enlighten these bronze faced
devotees. The explanation is very sim
pie one. This reed grass is hollow. 1t
shelters species of tiny beetle, and these
tiny insects obligingly bore the holes in
these innumerable pipes of tie great god
Pan.
Then comes your fakir, and he, with his
knowledge of acoustics-for the superior
class of Hindoo ascetics are deeply versed
in. natural laws-enlarges and shapes and
finishes until each reed is a perfect lutte,
answering to a certain keynote in the mu-
steal scale. The wind is the musician and
blows the pipes thus prepared with re-
suits as described. Why the fakir should
go to che trouble of attuning the reeds is
probably due to the habitual fostering of
native Buperstitions by the Brahmans in
control. -Pittsburg Dispatch.