A Chinese commentator, however, relieves us from the necessity of seeking for a literal lute between the resounding jaws of the mighty chasm (note 23.) He says it is erroneous (ngo) to suppose that the baby emperor (ju ti) grasped (ping,) or left behind (chi) or abandoned in the place of midnight darkness (huen) any lutes or lyres (kin seh.) In hyperbolical language (wu wu)—which is never true when taken literally—a clear limpid river (shuh) would be the lute (kin.)
But how could a clear stream serve as a lute?
The running water might produce limpid notes. Thus Moore, in his ode on "Harmony," uses the following words:
"Listen!—when the night-wind dies
Down the still current, like a harp it sighs!
A liquid chord in every wave that flows."
Here is a current of water likened to the string of a harp, and the playing of winds compared to music.
Mrs. Sigourney calls Niagara a "Trump," and we accept the assertion (although literally it is quite untrue.)
But if the Chinese account placed a Trump in the Ontario chasm there would be considerable difficulty in finding it.
Fortunately, in the case immediately before us, it is a Chinese author who tells us that we are to seek for limpid streams rather than for literal lutes or lyres.
The mention of the latter would probably imply that the sounds of some stream or streams in the Great Canyon are of a remarkably soft and musical character.
Streams may produce delightful tones. Thus one observer (at Yellowstone) tells of the "mysterious music of the distant falls" "like the tremulous vibration of a mighty but remote harp-string." (note 24)