Has anyone ever written down the tune that the cooliea sing when driving in the foundations of house? And what are the words thereof? We have alk heard dozens of times and no doubt found it rather quaint and stimulating, though when one is so situated as to be compelled to listen to it all the day and half the night it becomes unendurable. Yet it is worth studying. There is evidently some determined rhythm, though what it is difficult to anal; ere is the long recitative of ha-be-bu-ha'' (or something like it) and then all of sudden bursts out the wild chant. Sometimes all the ¥ s are in unison and the chant roads off and dies uway evenly into the retitative agai At other times the singers appear to come in against each other in a sort of canon and the chant ends in a confused uproar like a wave bursting upon a rock, bub quickly merges into the old "baho." What is it that. determines these variations? For, by larg listening one would say that they are not. ruled by chance. Any composer writing an opera about building coolies" sot Meanwhite China really ought to include the we should be grateful for. some information about it.
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