Dreaming up the soundtrack of life
A bonfire was lit: a carriage disgorged four Gypsies- a violin, a viola, a czembalom and a double-bass- who assembled under a tree... Their strings and their voices kept us company all the way downhill, the through the gates and along the grass path through the trees.
But nobody can deny that the fauna of the Discworld is particulary rich in species which other worlds have dreamed of. Not for nothing does the old song run:
All beasts bright and beautiful
All monsters big and small
All things weird and wonderful
The Discworld has them all
Each clan [of the Feegles] keeps a bard and musician, called a gonnagle, with a repertoire of heroic lays, laments, and martial music played on the mousepipes. Such performers are invaluable in battle, for terrorizing the enemy. When Tiffany Aching and the Feegles of the Chalk are attacked by a pack of fairt grimhounds, the venerable William the gonnagle takes out his pipes:
'I shall play,' he announced, as the dogs got close enough for Tiffany to see the drool, 'that firrrm favourite, "the King Underrr Waterrr".' As one pictsie, the Nac Mac Feegles dropped their swords and put their hands over their ears. William out the mouthpiece to his lips, tapped his foot once or twice, and, as a dog gathered itself to leap at Tiffany, began to play... The dog in front of her went cross-eyed and, instead of leaping, tumbled forward. The grimhounds paid no attention to thhe pictsies. The howled. They spun around. They tried to bite their own tails. They stumbled, and ran into one another. The line of panting death broke into dozens of desperate animals, twisting and writhing and trying to escape from their own skins. [The Wee Free Men]
What had happened was that William had played 'the notes of pain', pitched too high for human ears, but agonizing to dogs.
