8. Instruments.—This branch of the topic is made specially clear and interesting by the existence of many actual specimens in all large ethnological museums. Yet a systematic summary of the facts in any brief form is impossible, since the details vary indefinitely.
Extraordinary cleverness and genuine artistic feeling are often displayed in fashioning musical implements by peoples otherwise very rude. Great patience and dexterity are expended in working such materials as are available into the desired condition and form, and elaborate carving or tasteful coloring is often added. Well-made instruments are held to be precious, sometimes sacred.
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The following summary is designed simply to give a hint of the indefinite
variety of forms under three standard classes:—
Flatile or wind instruments.—The different flutes and flageolets found are innumerable. They are made from reeds, grasses, wood, bone (even human bones), clay, stone. They are blown across a mouth-hole or through a whistle-mouthpiece, and either by the mouth or by the nose. They are both single and double, or, in the case of syrinxes or Pan's-pipes, compound. Often they are fitted with from two to several finger-holes for varying the pitch, though, curiously, all these are not always habitually used. Occasionally a reservoir for the air is provided, such as a flexible bag or sack, with the pipe or pipes attached. The tones vary greatly in power and sweetness, though the tendency is toward shrill and piercing qualities.
Horns and trumpets are also common, of every shape, size and quality, made of horn, shell, ivory, bamboo, wood, metal. Generally there is little variation of pitch, though overtones are used somewhat. The tones produced are usually powerful, often harsh.
Percussive or pulsatile instruments.—Clappers of bone or wood are frequent, and various hollowed tubes and the like that can be beaten. Castanets of shell or metal are often found. Everywhere rattles and jingles abound, made of bunches of pebbles, fruit-stones or shells (occasionally of a human skull filled with loose objects). All sorts of gongs or tam-tams occur, made of wood, stone, brass, copper, iron; these sometimes appear in sets, so that rude melodies or harmonies are possible. The varieties of drum and tambourine are endless, all characterized by a stretched head of skin over a hollow bowl or box, the latter being usually a gourd, a hollowed piece of wood (as the trunk of a tree) or a metallic vessel. They are sounded either by the hand or by sticks. Much ingenuity is sometimes shown in devising signals and intricate tattoos, and drums are often used in combination.
A specially interesting invention is the African 'marimba' or gourd-piano. This consists of a graduated series of gourds surmounted by resonant pieces of wood that can be struck by sticks, like the modern
