20 BULLETIN 136, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



The marimba used in Central America consists of a topless table, 

 trapezoidal in shape, having cords stretched its length. These cords 

 support bars of wood, graduated in size, and beneath each is sus- 

 pended a resonator. The instrument is played by four or five per- 

 formers, each using a pair of drumsticks. A flexible wood is used 

 for these sticks, and at the end of each is a flat round head made of 

 strips of raw rubber. The sticks vary in size and weight, the smaller 

 bars being struck with lighter sticks. A marimba from Guatemala 

 (15248, pi. 11&) was made by the Tactic natives and given to the 

 Museum by Henry Hague in 1874. The frame is 67% inches long 

 and it has 22 bars of sonorous wood graduated in length from 9 to 14 

 inches. Long cylindrical gourds are placed beneath the bars as 

 resonators, and each has an aperture in its side, over which is placed 

 a round lump of wax or pitch, pierced with y%-inch hole. The strik- 

 ing sticks are with the instrument. 



Wooden resonators are commonly used in this instrument. A 

 group of players on such a marimba is shown in Plate 12. 



A xylophone from Java (95663, pi. 65) is composed of 12 sec- 

 tions of bamboo, of graduated lengths and diameters, each having one 

 end closed by a joint. These are placed side by side and fastened 

 with cords. It is supposed this instrument was suspended from the 

 ceiling and struck with slender sticks. 



VIBRATING TONGUES 



The form of this class of instruments most familiar to a musician 

 of the white race is the tuning fork; the form most familiar to the 

 student of oriental music is the zanze. The music box is also in 

 this class. 



Tuning forks were invented about the middle of the eighteenth 

 century by John Shore, Handel's famous trumpeter. They are usu- 

 ally made of tempered steel, their tone is comparatively free from 

 upper partial tones ("overtones") and their pitch is not disturbed 

 by ordinary changes of temperature. They are tuned by filing the 

 ends of the prongs to raise the pitch, and by filing the base between 

 the prongs to lower the pitch. The manner of use is too familiar 

 to need description. A series of tuning forks of graduations of pitch 

 is exhibited (261050). These were made in Japan. 



The zanze is an African instrument consisting of bamboo or metal 

 tongues fastened near one end to a small board and twanged with 

 the fingers or thumbs. Sometimes the board was hollowed out, form- 

 ing a resonator, and sometimes a gourd was attached to the instru- 

 ment and served that purpose. In the specimens exhibited the number 

 of tongues varies from 8 to 19. Some have metal and some have bam- 

 boo tongues. All the instruments exhibited are from Africa. No. 



