ged up to his neck in the
waters of the river Jumna, and began. Before he had finished half of the
song, the water around him began to boil. He paused, but, finding the
emperor's curiosity relentless, continued the strain, until at the close
his body burst into flames and was consumed. Another melody caused the
formation of clouds and the fall of rain, and a female singer is said
once to have saved Bengal from drought and famine by means of this lay.
Many other refrains had a similar power over the forces of nature; one
could make the sun disappear and bring on night at midday, while others
could change winter to spring, or rain to sunshine.

In all Indian legends, the charm of music is described as of immense
potency. All animate and inanimate nature is represented as listening
with ecstasy to the singing of Chrishna and Parbuti.[2] When Chrishna
was on earth, in the form of a shepherd, there were sixteen thousand
pastoral nymphs, or shepherdesses, who fell in love with him. They all
tried to win his heart by the power of music, and each one sang to him
in a different manner. Hence arose the sixteen thousand different keys
which were said to have existed at one time in India.

The Hindoo musical system of to-day is likewise ascribed largely to
female sources. The scale consists of seven chief tones, which are
represented by as many heavenly sisters. The names of the tones (sa, ri,
ga, ma, pa, dha, ni, corresponding to our do, re, mi, etc.) are merely
abbreviations of the names of the nymphs who preside over them. The
tones of the scale are divided into quarters, and the number of quarters
in the diatonic scale intervals is four, three, two, four, four, three,
and two. Thus the number of possible modes is vastly greater than in our
own scale, which has only semitones. There are six chief modes,
represented by six genii, while each one is married to five of the
thirty nymphs who typify the lesser modes. Each one of the genii has
eight sons, and these are wedded to a nymph apiece, making forty-eight
in all. Every member of this prolific musical family presides over
something, if it is only one of the quarter tones that form the scale.

To illustrate the method of naming, the four quarters of the fifth scale
tone (pa, or Panchama) belong to the nymphs Malina, Chapala, Lola, and
Serveretna. The next full tone (dha) is owned by Santa and her sisters.
If the higher tone, dha, should be flatted, giving it the same pitch as
t