n the right side, for if a melody is repeated time after
time it means that the people themselves like it and appreciate it. There
is no doubt that anybody with an unspoilt musical ear rather fancies
listening over and over again to a melody which appeals to him--and we
need not go as far as Beluchistan to be convinced of this--for we
ourselves have been known to take fancies to songs of so high a standard
as _Ta-ra-ra-boom-de-ay_, _The Honeysuckle and the Bee_, &c., and we hum
them while soaking in our morning tub, we whistle them as we go down to
breakfast, we strum them on the piano after breakfast, we hear them
rattled outside by a barrel organ, as many times as there are forthcoming
pennies from windows, while we are having lunch, we hear them
pathetically sung at afternoon parties by hired entertainers, bands play
them in the restaurants during dinner, and we hear them in the theatres,
in music halls, and everywhere,--so that we cannot very well blame others
for the monotony of their melodies since we largely follow the same
course as theirs.

The Beluch plays and sings because it gives him real pleasure, and he is
quite carried away by his music. Certain notes and combinations of notes,
especially such as are very high and shrill, but in good tune, seem to go
straight to his heart, and he revels in them. When singing, therefore, he
prefers to sing in falsetto--as high as the furthest strain of his voice
permits--and having worked himself into a semi-dazed state gradually
descends to low deep notes, which by contrast appeal to him and not only
give balance and character to his melody but produce quite a good
harmonious effect. The low notes, however, are never ejaculated, but
hummed, almost buzzed, with a vibration in the voice which is most
melodious. The sound is like an indefinite letter U.

The beginning of a song is somewhat sudden and startling, and usually too
loud, as if the singer had not properly gauged the extent of his voice in
relation to the instrumental accompaniment, but he soon manages to get in
most perfect unison with the melody of the dambura and the violin or
other instruments, except in cases of singers endowed with extra musical
genius, when they will go on improvising by the hour, using the theme as
a guide. They generally sing in a minor key, with pretty refrains at the
end of each bar.

[Illustration]

The most common and favourite air is the above on which elaborate
variations are ad