[978]. Anf. d. Kunst, p. 132.
[979]. On this baffling theme there is good reasoning in a neglected book by Noiré, Die Welt als Entwicklung des Geistes, pp. 240 f. He notes the mnemonic force of earliest words, which were few and used under strong emotional excitement; language was a kind of “thinking aloud.”
[980]. Stated in different terms by W. von Humboldt, Werke, VI. 198.
[981]. Wallaschek, Prim. Mus., pp. 70 f.
[982]. I. von Döllinger, Beiträge zur Sektengeschichte des Mittelalters, Munich, 1890, II. 623 f., from an old Ms., “de hystrionibus et officiis inutilibus.” Priests are instructed what professions bar the granting of absolution,—an interesting passage. “Cum igitur meretrices ad confessionem venerint, vel hystriones, non est eis danda poenitentia, nisi ex toto talia relinquant officia,” etc.
[983]. See Dana’s account of an improvising islander working in California, Two Years before the Mast, Chap. XIX.
[984]. Wallaschek, quoting Portman, p. 278.
[985]. J. Darmesteter, Chants Populaires des Afghans, Paris, 1888-1890, p. clxxxvi. The Afghans have got to a Browning level in poetry, if we may believe Captain Rafferty, Selections from the Poetry of the Afghans, London, 1862. “Shaida’s poetry ...” he says, “is deep and difficult.”
[986]. Ahlwardt, über Poesie und Poetik der Araber, Gotha, 1856, p. 7.
[987]. F. Michel, Le Pays Basque, Paris, 1857, pp. 214 f. The same is true of the Poles. See Talvj (here spelled Talvi) Historical View of the Languages and Literatures of the Slavic Nations, New York, 1850, Part IV., pp. 315 ff. Speaking of the Polish ballads, Mrs. Robinson says, “Their dances were formerly always accompanied by singing. But these songs are always extemporized. Among the country gentry ... the custom of extemporizing songs ... continued even down to the beginning of our own century.”