You might have seen the slightest
perceptible quivering through her whole frame as she leaned a
little forward, clasping her hands as if to steady herself; while
her eyes dilated and brightened into that wideopen, childish
expression of wondering delight, which always came back in her
happiest moments." George Eliot's novels contain many allusions
to the powerful emotional effects of music.
It is unnecessary to refer to Tolstoy's _Kreutzer Sonata_, in
which music is regarded as the Galeotto to bring lovers
together--"the connecting bond of music, the most refined lust of
the senses."
In primitive human courtship music very frequently plays a considerable
part, though not usually the sole part, being generally found as the
accompaniment of the song and the dance at erotic festivals.[125] The
Gilas, of New Mexico, among whom courtship consists in a prolonged
serenade day after day with the flute, furnish a somewhat exceptional
case. Savage women are evidently very attentive to music; Backhouse (as
quoted, by Ling Roth[126]) mentions how a woman belonging to the very
primitive and now extinct Tasmanian race, when shown a musical box,
listened "with intensity; her ears moved like those of a dog or horse, to
catch the sound.
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