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284 ’PRAVELS
The whole compafs of their mufic confifts of five notes, and with ~
thefe five notes they play, they dance, and recite their poetry or
verfes. It is eafy to imagine the melancholy and monotcnous
effect of their mufic, as well as the impoffibility of improving it,
until they fhall abandon this five-ftringed inftrument. But bar-
barous and half civilized nations are no lefs frugal of their mental
than of their corporeal enjoyments: they can difpenfe with the
refinements of mufic as eafily as they are reconciled to fimplicity
and uniformity in their diet and mode of life.
The introduction of the violin has operated fome change in the
national mufic of that country. The extent of that inftrument
feems to have roufed the genius of the Finlanders, and the mufic
they play on the violin has acquired a character different from that
which they perform on the darpu. 1 will prefent my reader with
fome fpecimens of national mufic in the Appendix, where they
will have an opportunity of feeing the nature of that ancient me-
lody called runa, which is certainly difcriminated by a character
not to be met with in any other fpecies of mufic. It confifts in
two periods, or bars of five crotchets each, which make two
periods of eight notes: and I have divided that melody into two
parts, in order to accommodate myfelf to the peculiarity of their ©
verfe, each of which has eight fyllables, and two of them com-
plete the tune, as may be feen in the Appendix, No. I.
CHAPTER
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