V.V. (12) "a pennywhistle began to play nearby"

[jbor]

      In the morning the Captain sent a party to communicate with the 
    Fuegians. When we came within hail, one of the four natives who were
    present advanced to receive us, and began to shout most vehemently,
    wishing to direct us where to land. When we were on shore the party
    looked rather alarmed, but continued talking and making gestures with
    great rapidity. It was without exception the most curious and
    interesting spectacle I ever beheld: I could not have believed how
    wide was the difference between savage and civilized man: it is
    greater than between a wild and domesticated animal [ ... ]

    [Darwin goes on to describe their physical bearing, clothes, skin
    colouration, headresses, hair, and face and body paint.]

    The party all together closely resembled the devils which come on
    stage in plays like Der Freischutz. [ ... ]

      They are excellent mimics: as often as we coughed or yawned, or
    made any odd motion, they immediately imitated us. Some of our party
    began to squint and look awry: but one of the young Fuegians (whose
    whole face was painted black, excepting a white band across his eyes)
    succeeded in making far more hideous grimaces. They could repeat with
    perfect correctness each word in any sentence we addressed them, and
    they remembered such words for some time. Yet we Europeans all know how
    difficult it is to distinguish apart the sounds in a foreign language.
    Which of us, for instance, could follow an American Indian through a
    sentence of more than three words? All savages appear to possess, to an
    uncommon degree, this power of mimicry. I was told, almost in the same
    words, of the same ludicrous habit among the Caffres: the Australians,
    likewise, have long been notorious for being able to imitate and
    describe the gait of any man, so that he may be recognised. How can this
    faculty be explained? is it a concequence of the more poractised habits
    of perception and keener senses, common to all men in a savage state, as
    compared with those long civilized?

                                    (Darwin, _Journal of Researches into the
                                     Natural History and Geology of the
                                     Countries Visited During the Voyage of
                                     H.M.S. Beagle Around the World, under
                                     the Command of Capt. Fitz Roy R.N._
                                     London, John Murray, 1860, pp 205-6)

The irony here, of course, is to do with questions of who, really, was
mimicking whom, who was in awe of whom etc.

Q. What is Pynchon doing with Charlie D's binary opposition of "savage" vs.
"civilized" in this narrative orientation?

best