The Bottineau pioneer. (Bottineau, N.D.) 1885-1895, 1893-05-06
ATTACHED TO PIGEONS.
MUSIC FURNISHED IN PEKIN BY
THE CHAO-TSE.

MUSIC FURNISHED IN PEKIN BY
THE CHAO-TSE.
It Sounds Like the Music of the spheres
But Ii Made by Reeds Which Pro-
tsct Pigeons From Pred
story Hawks.
When q traveller visits Pekin for
the first time he is struck by q
strange music. The sound seems to
be afar off it approaches and then
dies away. His ears hear nothing
more and the air. is again creme In
q few moments the anne phenomenon
is again produced. If the traveller
will then gaze at the sky at the mo-
ment when the crescendo of the
aerial orchestra launches its most
Ponorous strains he will perceive q
light cloud whose color cuts the blue
of the sky. In a moment the cloud
resolves itself into a flood of pigeons,
which after few gyrations finish by
alighting upon the of a house
Of which they r the amiable pro-
prietors. The harmony has ceased,
and the traveller has no doubt but
these pigeons are the artists of the
aerial orchestra. But what are their
instruments and why this music that
tsaves something to be desired from
4 harmonic point of view?
The instrument is called chaO-tse.
The word '.chao" means whistling,
t'tse" signifies mechanical - hence
tlechanical whistler. The chao-tse
Las many different forms, according
TO the arrangements given to the ele-
ments of which it is composed, which
hre pieces of reed pipes placed side
by side. Some are made of a small
gourd, placed at the end of the reeds
and with ends fastened upon n or
several points of the gourd. The ap-
Paratus should be very light SO that
1t will be no trouble to the bird to
| carry the instrument, which is to be
attached to it in the following man.
ner: A little pellet is attached from
p point of the chao-tse; it is placed
between two of the pigeons tail
feathers, and by the aid of a little stick
that passes through a ring of the
| pellet it is firmly held. The whistles
are placed in such a way that the air
passes through with a force proper
toned to the rapidity of the birds
flight, the sounds being raised ac-
cording to the size of the reeds and
| gourds.
|: But what is the end conserved by
the chao-tsep queries the Chicago
Inter Ocean. Is it simply fantastic,
artistic. or usefulp
1t unites all these qualities. In
fact this queer invention, unlike most
things Chinese, is not very ancient. 1t
did not exist when Pekin was a
superb city, clean and kept in good
order. It is difficult to give the exact
date of Pekin's decadence; it is true,
however, that the city is now in a de-
plorable state. There is no munich
pal care of the streets, but, like most
Mohammedan cities, the birds of
prey, in place of the town council, do
the scavenger work. As they abound
in large numbers in the vicinity of
Pekin the animal and vegetable waste
is sOon taken up by these birds. They
are chiefly the hawk, the sparrow
hawk of Stevenson, the eagle and the
Buteo poliogenys; all these will at
tack the animals of the barn yard,
and especially the pigeons. Since the
hawks are necessary evils, the ques-
| tion o as to what was to be done
to ave the pigeons SO dear to the
| Chinese heart from the cruel claws?
They might, indeed, kill the birds of
prey; but what would become of the
garbage? They might have seques-
tered the pigeons, but that would
have been a punishment.
Their owners in solution of the
| question invented the chao-tse, which
| by it's noise frightens off the enemies
of the pigeons and leaves then secure
du-:ing their aerial flights.
All people have their superstitions.
The Chinese have theirs; some are
grotesque and some Ingenious. The
chao-tse is among the number that
are pleasant. The C linese like the
wild, mournful sounds in the air and
believe them to be the voices of their
ancestors. Indeed. the sounds of the
instruments attached to the tails of
the pigeons are translated by. them
as the mysterious speech that comes
from the mouth of the emperors of
past dynasties. The music of the
chao-tse is one of the rare poesies of
the Celestial empire.