FRAGMENTS OF SCIENCE. 



713 



Columbian use would have been beyond any 

 contention." Mr. Saville finally, in the Amer- 

 ican Anthropologist for September, 1898, 

 shows apparently the existence of a pre-Co- 

 lumbian stringed musical device in a paper 

 entitled The Musical Bow in Ancient Mexico, 

 and presents his proof in the form of a re- 

 production from an ancient Mexican codex 

 of an orchestra of six performers. One of 

 the figures, according to Mr. Saville's inter- 

 pretation, is holding a musical bow in his 

 left hand while with his right hand he is 

 striking the cord with a forked stick. Claim- 

 ing no skill in the interpretation of these 

 quaint and concentrated Jack-of-beart fig- 



Fio. 1. 



ures, I readily yielded to the authority of 

 Saville in this matter, and so acknowledged 

 in a footnote in my paper which I was en- 

 abled to insert after the pages were made 

 up. Within a few days I have received a 

 letter from Mrs. Zelia Nuttall, the eminent 

 American paleographist, to whom we are 

 indebted for the most profound researches 

 in connection with these ancient codices. In 

 this letter Mrs. Nuttall refers to Sahagun's 

 great manuscript, wherein she says : " The- 

 native musical instruments are repeatedly 

 enumerated. The turtle's shell figures 

 among them, but there is no trace of a 

 stringed musical instrument ever having been 

 known or employed in ancient Mexico.' 1 '' (The 

 Italics are hers.) Mrs. Nuttall then says 

 that the object held under the arm of the 

 musician which has been recognized as a 

 musical bow is undoubtedly a turtle's shell. 

 In support of this view she sends me a trac- 

 ing of the figure from the original manuscript 



which is now in Vienna, in which the entire 

 object under the arm of the player as well 

 as the forked stick is colored blue (Fig. 1). 

 A photograph is also inclosed from another 

 ancient Mexican manuscript in course of pub- 



Fir,. 2. 



lication by Mrs. Nuttall. In this (Fig. 2) the 

 player has the turtle's shell and is pounding 

 on it with a pronged stick, horn, or branch, 

 while in the other hand he holds a rattle and 

 at the same time sings, the notes being 

 graphically portrayed as they come from his 

 mouth. It will be observed that it is the 

 plastron or ventral surface that he is strik- 

 ing, as shown by the notches in its forward 

 and hinder edges, though the plates are in- 

 correctly drawn. In the figure given by Mr. 

 Saville the player is holding the turtle's 

 shell in precisely that position that would 

 enable him to strike the plastron. Even in 

 Mr. Saville's figure the mar- 

 ginal plates of the shell are 

 plainly indicated. By hold- 

 ing the figure face downward 

 the shell is thrown in a nor- 

 mal position with the back 

 uppermost, and what was 

 mistaken for the string of 

 the instrument is the outline 

 of the back of the turtle 

 correctly delineated. With 

 the above figures I give the 

 outline of the left arm and 

 body of a friend who posed for me while 

 holding a large South American turtle under 

 his arm. I have drawn the plates of the 

 carapace to more clearly indicate the posi- 



