It was a suggestion of my friend Dr. Edward Westermarck that my original essays on primitive music should be revised and amplified so as to form a fairly serviceable treatise on the subject. While engaged in this work I have met with so much assistance and encouragement that I can only quite inadequately acknowledge my deep gratitude to Mrs. Plimmer, Prof, and Mrs. Sully for all the help and advice (scientific and other) they have given me from the beginning of my labours. I have also to express my thanks to Mr. R. H. Legge for his aid in preparing this English version of the work for the press, to Prof. Rhys Davids and Mr. James Sime for giving me the benefit of their knowledge and experience, and to Dr. H. R. Mill for his kind revision of the proof-sheets and for his most valuable suggestions in so many geographical and ethnological details.

As to the importance of ethnology for the science of art I need hardly say many words, it being a generally accepted fact. In the present work it has been my aim to deal with the music of savage races only, while the music of ancient civilisation has merely been glanced at whenever it was necessary to indicate the connecting links between the most primitive and the comparatively advanced culture.