New-York tribune., 1901-09-01


The sounding board is large hollow gourd, open %
below; the upper part fastened by Strings mat
pass through drilled holes. IS conleal piece OK
handle which projects at a right angle. The arm
is made 9, of IF light wood t trS f bna eytrey has
three frets formed by two notcheS with Intervals
string made of ''InOndo.' the fibre of the "nwale,
or riphit palm. is tied 10 knoD OK W, woIa Ir pIo
thence il passes over bridge or oent qnit Wncn -;
lor tuning Is raised or GepIssseu' anu I'D Se,ond
the frets- Sometimes. to form bass or dEone;; a
of the while the treble runs along the TOP
Both forms of the instrument were collected
by Mrs. Brown How Burton managed TO pro-
duce six tones from the instrument with the help
of the frets viii puzzle a musician Beyond the
frets. if the string be stopped by interrupting
the vibrations by pressure of the finger upon
the string merely. ) tine Chinese do with their
rude fddles. there may be sixty tones well
as SIX. bat if the frets be depended on to make
a perfect stoppage there be only four tones
-0ne for the open string and one for each fret
In India, China. Japan. Siam and the Far East
generally, while there are traces of gOurd sound
ing boxes. the more popular material is the
coeoanut she'll There are many specimens OF
this kind in the museum. of the most grace
full being No. 30. in the Siamese case. This
Mrs. Browns handbook describes as follows:
Peeah- strinsed Instrument \ narrow strip OF
and tlpering toward the opposite end. where it Is
nLiShed with . curved metal ornament, TO which
strings at point in the neck over the shell.
Length. thirty-six inches
See the illustration herewith. There
chinese and japanese fddIes the bodies of which
a cocoanut she'll with "A piece cut off and the
opening covered with skin. most frequently that
Of snake Such instrument is the Olnerti
of India kind of banjo used by the snake
charmers in Siam. and the most popular of all
Arabian Instruments the kemangeh a'gouz-
the principal instrument in the bands to be
heard in the coffee houses of Cairo y two
stringed fiddle in Persia has the opening of the
shell covered with a wooden belly. sounding
board.
Thus far the different peoples have been found
using resonators that came to their hand ready
made nearly Tortoise shells. gOurdS and
cocoanut shells needed little preparation to fit
them for their proper use. BY the side of them.
in many of the countries mentioned. in
darkest Africa. however. there are instruments
whose resonatOrs are made by stretching skins
over open boxes both sides of wooden
frames. All kinds of skin used-snake skin.
saZelle. goat. buffalo, (the Samisen of Japan.
familiar because of such frequent representa-
tion in pictures it's counterpart the Sanl-hien
of Chi~a. is covered with snake skim, fish (the
Arab kemangeh>. and even the skin of the ear
African harp. with eight strings made of root
hbre>. The most singular of all resouators. how
ever. seen in two African Instruments. the
phOtOgrap phs of which reproduced herewith
They Tyre and fiddle which a human
skull is made TO do service the soundb0x-
In the Tyre the horns of antelope form the
frame that supports the strings; in the fiddle
the neck consists OF a human ubid. In both
cases the superior portion of the skull is cut
away and the opening covered with membrane
imagined are but the GrewsOme fdnCieS OF some
savage wizard or muSically Inclined warrior with
Il terribly fantastic imagination. There are
trumpets in in the East Ga specimen sup
posed be of this kind may BE- seen in the chi
nese Case) made of the bones of lanlas (priests)
but human bones figure but little in the story
of musical instruments. Doubtless they We're
once used and may be yet for purposes of iacan-
tation. but il is most likely that the specimens
pictured here are merely the products of indi-
viduaI fancy. When the African musician uses
human bones il is generally for ornament He
will decorate his war drum with skulls a
trumpet with jawbOnes, the with
an instrument brought 10 England which htd
belonged the King of AShantee. However.
that human bones We're once put To musical uses
for specific purposes perha ps. is suggested very
forcibly by legend which has entered into the
folk songs of Sweden Norway, Iceland and
Scotland Many of The Tribune's readers. doubt