safford: pan-pipes of peru 



189 



So far as the writer knows, this is the first account of the 

 methods used by the Peruvians in attuning and playing their pan- 

 pipes. The instrument is often represented in collections by a 

 single specimen, and the alternating notes produced by it have 

 caused no little wonder to observers unaware that they repre- 

 sented not a scale but only half the notes of a scale, requiring a 

 second complementary instrument to make it complete. 



Ml DO LA FA RE SI SOL Ml 



RE 51 SOL Ml DO LA FA 



Fig. 2. A pair of syrinxes from Lake Titicaca. The two instruments are 

 complementary. Both are necessary for producing the notes of the scale. Other 

 instruments, also in pairs, are twice and four times the length of these. From 

 specimens in the U. S. National Museum (no. 210,439) collected at Puno by W. E. 

 Safford. About five-twelfths natural size. 



Usually each instrument is played by a separate person; but 

 the writer saw one expert performer who, to show his skill, played 

 on two instruments at the same time, one superimposed upon the 

 other, a feat evidently regarded by his companions with admira- 

 tion. No melody can be played by a single instrument: a pair of 

 instruments must always be used. What the original scale of the 

 ancient Peruvians was is not definitely known, but this can be 

 ascertained by measuring the lengths of the component reeds, 

 even if they have been crushed and are incapable of yielding 

 sounds. Undoubtedly they produced octaves, from the fact that 

 there are always pipes one-half the length of larger pipes, and some 



