safford: pan-pipes of peru 185 



Lake Titicaca, an orchestra composed entirely of pan-pipes of 

 various sizes, some of the instruments producing shrill notes like 

 those of a piccolo, others flute-like notes, and the largest, tones 

 like those of an organ or calliope. 



It was observed that the instruments were always grouped in 

 pairs. No single instrument was capable of producing all the 

 notes of the scale, but only alternate notes, separated by intervals 

 of a third, the intervening notes being played by a second player 

 upon an instrument which was the mate or complement of the 

 first. Nearly all the instruments consisted of 16 reeds arranged 

 in 2 rows of 8 graduated reeds, those of the inner row closed at 

 the bottom by a joint of the reed, while those of the outer row 

 were open both at the top and bottom. The reeds were secured 

 side by side, not by wax as in the Grecian syrinx, but by a splint 

 of cane wrapped about them, the upper ends forming a horizontal 

 line, the lower ends a series of steps, with the longest reeds on the 

 right of the player when in use (fig. 1). The performers, who 

 were full-blooded Quichua Indians, sounded the pipes by blowing 

 across the opening of the inner or closed reeds, the corresponding 

 outer open reeds apparently serving the purpose only of giving 

 volume or quality to the note sounded. Some of the smaller in- 

 struments were composed only of 14, or 7 pairs, of reeds, but in 

 other respects resembled the rest (fig. 2). 



The lowermost instrument of each pair sounded the notes mi, 

 sol, si, re, fa, la, do, mi; while its slightly smaller mate supplied 

 the intervening notes /a, la, do, mi, sol, si, re, fa. The theme of 

 one of the tunes played by the Titicaca Indians was the following: 



This was repeated again and again. The time was quick and the 

 Indians trotted along the street while playing, with short shuffling 

 steps, keeping time to the music. When they arrived at a cross 

 street and before the church they followed one another in ring, 

 very much like the players represented on funeral vases from 

 prehistoric graves. They wore close-fitting, pointed caps knit 



