HANDBOOK OF THE COLLECTION OF MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS 13 



the springs are made to revolve around it. The fourth class comprises all 

 rattles of the ancient sistruni form, also those in which the loose bars are 

 replaced by jingles. 



A hollow object containing loose, smaller objects is the typical 

 rattle of all primitive people and, as indicated, is the first division 

 of the first class of rattles according to the present grouping. A 

 characteristic rattle of British Guiana consists of a large bamboo 

 tube containing nutshells or fruit pits. Other rattles were made of 

 several small bamboo reeds, bound together with fiber and partially 

 filled with seeds. In Africa dried fruit shells were used as rattles, 

 the inclosed seeds making a sound. Rattles made of pottery have 

 come to us from the Aztecs in the form of seated or standing figures 

 of grotesque outline with broad flat heads. These vessels contain 

 tiny bits of clay which rattle when they are shaken. 



A rattle familiar in the southwest is made of a gourd containing 

 pebbles or clay pellets. An excellent example from the Sia of New 

 Mexico collected by James Stevenson is 134189 (pi. 8d), a smaller 

 from Walpi is 68737, and a painted gourd rattle of the Zuni is 

 286073, while 175626 (pi. 8h) is a decorated gourd rattle from the 

 Arapaho collected by James Mooney. No. 272591 is from South 

 Darien, Panama, the gourd inclosing canna seeds. A ceremonial 

 rattle of the Oneida is made of the entire body of a turtle (248712, 

 pi. 8/). Stiff rawhide is used for this type of rattle by the Plains 

 tribes, and a cylindrical box made of birch bark is used by the Chip- 

 pewa Indians in ceremonies of the Grand Medicine Society (263230). 

 Small receptacles containing tiny pebbles are often attached to the 

 clothing or body of a dancer. Such an ornament made of cocoons 

 (324885) is from the Seri Indians of Mexico. 



The characteristic rattle of Indians living in Alaska and British 

 Columbia is carved of wood. The rattle is made in two longitudi- 

 nal sections, each hollowed on one side to form a receptacle for the 

 pebbles and carved on the other side. These sections are usually 

 tied together with thongs to form the rattle. Such a rattle col- 

 lected at Port Simpson, British Columbia, by Swan is carved on 

 one side with a human mask held by a bear (20585, pi. 8g). The 

 two sections are tied together at the edges and nailed together at 

 the handle. A large specimen is 229544 (pi. 8e). An interesting 

 rattle, carved in a manner tj^pical of the Northwest coast, is 316756 

 (pi. 8a), collected by Sheldon Jackson. A Tlingit rattle collected 

 by Lieut. F. M. Ring, United States Army, in 1869, is carved in the 

 form of a bird and has five tufts of human hair fastened to each 

 wing (9106, pi. 8c). All these are described as "Shaman's rattle." 



The second division of this class of rattles comprises " hollow or 

 sonorous bodies so arranged as to strike one another." Nutshells, 



