he free open?

"... Study the very voices of spiritual men. They are
low-pitched, seeming to issue from deep within the man; one
strains to catch what is said, especially if he be used to
the far-carrying, sharp, metallic, blatant speech of the
West. Certain ancients were better versed in the potency of
sounds than we are to-day. Study in occult writings the
magic pronunciation of _Aum_, _Amitabha_, _Allah_, of certain
chants and spirit-invoking incantations of old, and one draws
a conception of the powers of friendly sounds and the
injurious effects of discordant sounds, such as we are
surrounded by....

"Many of us in the West, who are so used to din and broken
rhythm, would call the _Vina_, that Oriental harp-string of
the soul, a relic of barbaric times. But _Vina's_ magic cry
at evening brings the very elementals about the player. The
voices of Nature, the lapping of water, bird-song, roll of
thunder, the wind in the pines--these are sounds that bring
one some slight whit of the grandeur and majestic harmony of
the Universe. These are the voice of _kung_, 'the great tone'
in Oriental music, corresponding somewhat to F, the middle
note of the piano, supposed to be peace-invoking. In northern
China the Buddhist priests sit out in evening, listening
raptly to _kung_, the 'all-harmonious sound of the Hoang-ho
rushing by.' One longs to be the intimate of such
meditations."

30

THE DAKOTAN (_Continued_)

I first heard of the Dakotan[3] at a time when I was not quite so
interested in the younger generation. A woman friend out in his country
wrote me, and sent on some of his work. I was not thrilled especially,
though the work was good. She tried again, and I took the later
manuscript to bed with me, one night when I was "lifted out," as the
mason said. It did not work as designed. Instead of dropping off on the
first page, I tossed for hours, and a letter asking him to come to
Stonestudy was off in the first mail in the morning.

He is drawing entirely from his own centre of origins. That was
established at once, and has been held. The only guiding required, since
he is a natural writer, has been on the one point of preserving a
childlike directness and clarity of expression. It is not that he wants
the popular market; the quality of his _bent_ precludes that for the
present. More