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THE SAN FRANCISCO CALL', SATURDAY, NOVEMBER _\ 1912 -THE JUNIOR CALL , .
6
HE TAMED INDIANS BY MUSIC MACHINES
4< /~1 jpRTAINLJ music has a decided
I influence on all primitive people,
and you will find that the San Bias
Indians are fond of it. They have no
distinctive music of their own, but they
like that of the white man. It Is
largely to recognition of this fact that
this country owes the increase of its
trade along their coast, and by doing
what this country could to stimulate
and gratify their desire it has built up
a large commerce ana has made fast
friends of one of the most sullen, sus
picious, antagonistic races in the
world."
The speaker was Captain Bartllng
of the firm of Stern & Bartling. They
own a trading station on a little
island down in the Caribbean, 40 miles
from Colon, off that part of the coast
of Panama lying: between the canal
zone and Colombia. While the strip of
territory, formerly the property of
Colombia, nominally pertains to the
republic of Panama, it actually belongs
to and is governed by the tribes of the
San Bias, who are its sole inhab
itants.
These Indians are peculiar. Living at
the edgp of the sea, they learn to swim
and dive as soon ag thry can walk.
When they are three or four years old
their fathers make them canoes, five
or six feet long, hoHowod out of logs.
In these dugouts they do a!! of their
traveling:, using paddles and sails, and
become wonderfully expert judges of
weather and handlers of boats.
PADDLE FOR HO! Us
Naturally, they develop tremendous
powers of endurance and can paddle
uninterruptedly for many hours.
"I have frequently seen my two
boatmen dip paddles at 3 or 4 o'clock
in the afternoon and never let up until
8 or 9 o'clock the following: morning,
excepting for an occasional 5 minutes
in which to take a drink of rum and
water or eat a piece of dried fish."
said Captain Bartling. "The result Is
a short, broad shouldered, deep chested,
very thin legged race, the males of
which all look exactly alike. One of
the commonest sights to be seen along
the streets of Colon is- a party of five
or six San Bias men and boys; fre
quently they are the representatives
of four or five generations in a direct
line, and the only perceptible differ
ences between the 5 year old, two
foot high boy and his 75 year old, five
foot great-grandfather are those of
size and age. All are barefooted; all
wear long trousers rolled up to their
knees, with blue denim shirts hang
ing outside of trousers'; all have nar
row rimmed hard boiled derby hats of
the 'bowler' type, or stiff 'trade straws,'
made in Germany; and every hat ia
perched, balanced or gummed on the
crest of a cranial dome four sizes
larger than itself.
"And each walks with the same
svring, watches shop windows with the
same blankly curious eyes, expresses
opinions or directs attention of his
companions in the same monosyllabic
gutturals."
DEALINGS WERE HOTTEST
i&r. Stern and Captain Bartling are
the type of Americans one likes to
meet in the outer world, particularly If
has come into contact with the
other variety of traders and speculators
prevalent in Latin America. Shrewd,
keen business men, they are neverthe
less clean, detent and honest, and to
these qualities they owe their success
and their friendship with the San
Bias, which friendship means control
of trade with the tribe. Their trading
station, midway between Colon and the
first San Bias village as you go down
the coast, does a business amounting
to more than $200,000 a year in the
stotc, a building two stories high, cov
ering approximately 190 feet square.
They have a wharf and wareiiouses and
about 15 schooners and sloops, which
equip at the station, called Playa
Duma, and trade along the coast.
We were on board one of these lit
tle vessels when Captain "Jim" Bart
ling made the remark with which this
narrative began. We were lazily smok
ing in hammocks swung on deck from
the main boom shortly after dropping
anchor in the mouth of the Rio Diablo,
on tbe shores of which was the first
San Bias village I ever visited. I had
asked Captain "Jim" to tell me which
of our great variety of "trade stuff"
would be in greatest demand next
morning, and, to my astonishment, he
replied, "Jteeords for music machines."
WILD ABOIT IW€ SIC
Noting my surprise. Captain Bart
ling Paid: "Surest thing you know.
These Indians are wild about music
and we have made ourselves solid with
them by furnistiing it. They buy
flour, meal, lard, cloth and such stuff
because they must have it, but they
buy canned music because they like it.
And in all lines the big profit is en the
sale of luxuries. Mr. Stern started*
the thing. A few years ago he was
down here on one of our sloops; we
had some competition then and an
other fellow anchored here was get
ting, all the trade. Stern in a fit of
mollygrubs put a record on an old
phonograph he packed around wit>h
him and started the thing. After play
ing a few rounds , he went on deck
and there, in the moonlight, still as
grains of sand tn the sun, were 50
canoes loaded with San Bias. Btern
is somewhat of a gaxinka when it
ii.mcs to seeing an opportunity and
I'll bet you he didn't touch v step as
he dove back into that cabin an-1
started the music rolling out of the
ports. Then he went on deck again
and called across the water an invi
tation to Chief Carlo to come aboard
and see the mu&ic a-s it was made. He
put the box on deck under the galley
hood and in about 10 minutes you
could not have squeezed another In*
dian on to the poop deck.
"Xext day my partner presented the
phonograph and three records to the
village. Also he took orders for many
new records, the profits on winch more
than covered the cost of the gift ma
chine.
PROFIT IM MUSIC
"Since then our sale? of preserved
melody, ready to serve, have increased
steadily and we have sold in the last
three months 36 of the music grinders
and 300 records. Furthermore, our
ability and willingness along this line
have caused the San Bias to believe
that ours is the most progressive of all
the trade stations and that in return
for the pleasure we have given by
introducing the little music machines,
to say nothing of the fairness with
which we have treated them, it Is
rather up to them to sell to and buy
from us. I can not disagree with them.
Tomorrow you will have ample oppor
tunity to see whether I am wrong."
At 5 o'clock the following morning
I was launched into one of the most
interesting days of my life. My ham
mock was swung from main boom Iβ
starboard rail. Drowsily I realized
that I was being swung rather vio
lently. I fully awoke about midway
between the surface of the ocean anil
the rail over which I had been cata
pulted by Captain Bartling, who struck
the water almost simultaneously with
me. As I bobbed to the surface I found
myself surrounded by grinning, silent
San Bias men and boys, armed with
bows, arrows, spears rrVid heavy lines,
all for fishing. We had anchored
directly in the center of the fishing
grounds, and daylight had brought the
fishermen. With grunts of greeting to
Bartling, the set about the
business of the hour and we climbed
back on deck to watch them.
AN ANCIENT HINDU FABLE
Sr>m*» of the bathing suits were of
blue silk, and witli these blue silk
stockings were worn. Others were red
or white silk, with red or white silk
stockings. But the prettiest were the
simplest—well cut bathing suits of
black mohair, with stockings of black
silk.
Under his umbrella the Hindu said
.softly, as lie gazed at all those slender
sylphs moving in their pretty bathhrg
suits up and down the glittering wiiite
beach:
"This jolly sight reminds me of the
Hindu f.itilo (if Hμ creation of woman.
Its a fable far more poetical than your
Christian one, which forms woman out
of a man's rib. listen, and see if you
don't agree with me.
"Twashtri, at the beginning of time-,
•'He Invited Them Aboard to Sec How the Music Was Made"
Big Indians and little Indians, big
canoes, 60 feet long , , manned by a seine
crew of seven men and four paddlers.
contrasted with six foot piraguas, in
each of which sat one small Indian
boy. The bow and arrow men stood
erect, their boatmen paddling: slowly,
watching for "riffles" that indicated
passage of a big: fish, on viewing: which
they would shoot an arrow upward al
an angle.
VONDERFILLY ACCURATE AIM
So accurate was their estimate of
the speed of fish and arrow that the
latter would usualVy shoot downward
fully 1o feet from the shooter with
such force and precision .that the flfrii
would be transfixed. Now and then
there would sound a subdued shout
as one of the boys would harpoon a
fish as large as his canoe and would
be dragged swiftly about the bay.
while his relatives watched and gave
directions, 'jut never interfered until
his inability to handle his catch be
came evident.
Later in the morning, after break
fast, trading began. First, the Indians
came alongside, bringing cargoes of
cocoanuts, Ivory nuts and tortoise
shelL These were < ount<»d or weiffhe.l
forward on deck »nd paid for in cash,
after which tbe Indians would van
created the universe and man, but when
he came to create woman he found that
he had exhausted his materials and no
solid elements remained.
"Twashtri mused a while. Then an
ilea came to him, and in order to make
the first woman lie took moonlight and
the undulations of the serpent, the slen
derness of reeds and their toft
movement in the wind, the tears of a
rain cloud, the velvet of flower ptfali,
the grace of a roe, the tremor (.f
grasses, th« of the peacock. Hie
softness *f #i» down on a doves brea.st,
the hwll«H of diamonds an<i the
sweetness of honey, the cruHty of tb«
tiger and the warmtli of rtre, the cold
of snow, the chatter of a ju.y a n<l th ■
coo of a dove —and out of these thl&gj
Twashtri created womiii."
der aft and go below to make their
purchases.
Tho cabin of our vessel resembled
nothing quite so much as the Interior
of a. combination general store and
ship chandler's shop, excepting that
here one noted far greater compactness
and neatness. Our stock consisted of
crockery, gingham, tinware, drugs,
cutlery, rum, slippers, soap, hats, gun
powder, combs, "trade" shotguns,
canned biscuit, bird and buck shot,
lardk shirts, machetes, hair tonic,
grindstones, cotton trousers, gin, ban
dana handkerchiefs and bacon, corn
meal, flour and flsh hooks, cheap
watches, fish line, pipes and tobacco,
cigars, condensed milk, tinned butter
and nearly everything else imagin
able.
Being very primitive, unable to count
above 10 except by saying "ten and,"
the Indians, after receiving cash for
their products, paid cash for each
article purchased, thus avoiding com
plications of addition.
Ml SIC WAS A FEAST
And each, after haggling over the
prices of necessaries, went above and
seated himself on deck, apparently ex
pectant of something. There they re
mained for hours, until all of the
tribesmen had completed their pur
chases, after which Captain Bartling
had the "music grinding machine" put
on deck with a stack of new records.
Record after record was run, and at the
finish 06 each the Indians would either
"wave it away" or one of them would
buy it, handing over the cash each
time.
It was a sort of community proposi
tion; they took regular turns around
the circle and bought no duplicates.
Nor did they attempt to argue about
prices, as they had over foodstuffs. At
the close of the afternoon the party
went ashore, carrying more than 60 new
records of 'preserved music."
That evening, by invitation, tie vis
ited the Cacique in his village and were
spiendily entertained at a great supper
of boiled fish and crabs with tomatoes
and rice, followed by a most delectable
fricassee of monkey. Supper over we
gathered around a glowing fire of hard
wood and the new music was played.
I have made many voyages along that
coast since then, but I shall never for
get that evening. The stolid faces of
the men shone up in half tones by the
firelight, an indistinct smudge in the
background, where the women and chil
dren were fathered, while the strains
of the "Merry Widow" waltz. "My Rain
bow Girl," "La Paloina." the, "Luolft"
sextet, "Cubanola," Qounod'e "Aye
Maria" and "A Hot Time in the Old
Town" ru< from tbe center of the
ecboed from the cliffs and fio.-u.-.i
o'it over the water. BrerjrtJtlac trMn
M tO oper-.i seemed to apru-al ;i (i<i
every selection wjis listened to It)
siieis.c, with Mtcfc Interest, that there
remained Dβ possibility of doubt i'Ji;
that iiitisi'- has a powerful Influel
Hμ suvagv.
