, there must have been
little incentive for women to strive in the musical field.

As in Greece, female slaves played a large part in the world of
art,--with this difference, that in Rome the masters were usually on a
lower plane of cultivation than their own slaves. Dancing was an adjunct
to music, though often practised as a separate branch of entertainment,
and brought to a high state of perfection in its pantomimic form.

The position of woman in the far East was inferior even to her station
in Greece and Rome. In China, for example, everything feminine was held
in contempt. This had its influence on the musical system of the
Chinese, according to one of their legends. After the invention of
music, the formation of various instruments, and the composition of many
songs, all due to more or less mythical emperors, Hoang-Ti, who reigned
about the year 2600 B. C., decided to have the art scientifically
investigated and its rules formulated. In his day music was practised,
but not understood in its natural elements. The emperor therefore
ordered Ling-Lun to look into the matter.

This dignitary, about whose work many anecdotes exist, travelled to
Northwestern China, and took up his abode on a high mountain, near a
bamboo grove. On cutting a stalk and excavating the pith between two of
the joints, he found that the tube gave the exact pitch of the normal
human voice, and also the sound given by the waters of the Hoang-Ho,
which had its source near the scene. Thus was discovered the fundamental
tone of the scale.

Meanwhile, the Foang-Hoang, or sacred bird of Chinese mythology,
appeared with its mate and perched upon a neighbouring tree. The male
bird sang a scale of several tones, while the female sang another
composed of different tones. The first note of the male bird coincided
in pitch with Ling-Lun's bamboo tube, and by cutting other tubes the
erudite investigator proceeded to reproduce all the tones of both. By
combining these, he was able to form a complete chromatic scale. But,
owing to the prejudice against the weaker sex, the tones of the female
(called feminine tones even to-day) were discarded in favour of those
of the male bird. The latter, the basis of Chinese music, correspond to
the black keys of our piano, while the former were equivalent to the
white, or diatonic, notes of our scale.

That Chinese music, based on this pentatonic scale, need not be at all
displeasing, is proved by many of the old Scot