HANDBOOK OF THE COLLECTION OF MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS 31 



ornament in the bell. Its reed is made from cane and it has a bell 

 similar to that of the clarinet. A small instrument of this kind 

 is still used by peasants in the Tyrol. An interesting example of this 

 class is the snake charmer's pipe, used in India (92714, pi. 17g). 

 According to Capt. Meadows Taylor, these instruments 



are not much used with other musical instruments and belong to snake 

 charmers and various tribes of jugglers, acrobats, and the like. By the snake 

 charmers a few notes only are played, which seem to have the effect of rousing 

 the snakes to action. Usually the cobra de capellos are exhibited and as 

 the reptiles raise themselves on their tails, expand their hoods and wreath 

 themselves to and fro, the player becomes more excited and the motions of the 

 snakes are accelerated by the player's rapidity of execution. 



Two pipes of this sort from other countries are 96467 from Russia 

 with a vibrating tongue formed in one side, and 95704 from Cairo, 

 made of a single tube of cane without a reducing joint, and having 

 a conical bell made of tin plate. 



The collection contains an interesting group of double pipes 

 with finger holes and a single reed. The two pipes are lashed 

 together and one acts as a drone and has no finger holes, the other 

 is the shorter and has either five or six finger holes. Such an instru- 

 ment is 94656 from the Arabs in Mesopotamia, while 95702 and 95703 

 are from Cairo, the former of these being peculiar in that both 

 pipes have finger holes. A Syrian double pipe is 95653, consisting 

 of two pipes of cane lashed side by side. The melody tube is made 

 up of three sections, the lower one is the longest and is pierced 

 with six finger holes, the one next above it is shorter and telescopes 

 into the lower, acting as a reducing joint. The upper joint is the 

 mouth piece, and the single beating reed is formed in its side. The 

 upper part of the other tube is similar but has no finger boles. 

 This tube acts as a drone but has two extension pieces of different 

 lengths. Either can be added or the three may be combined, the 

 various combinations giving the drone three different tones. Other 

 double Syrian pipes made of cane are 95148, 95149 222167, the first 

 two being about 31 inches long and the third being only about 12 

 inches in length. A double pipe called the " Bedouins' shepherd 

 pipe " is 93555. 



The clarinet is the most familiar instrument of this class, and is 

 the most important instrument of the wind band. It may be de- 

 scribed briefly as a cylindrical tube, pierced with many side holes, 

 terminating in a bell and having a single beating reed set in the 

 mouthpiece. The shape of the mouthpiece is that of a conical 

 stopper, flattened on one side to form the table for the reed, and 

 thinned to a chisel edge on the other for convenience to the lips. 

 The table on which the reed lies is not flat but curved backward 

 so as to leave a slit between the end of the mouthpiece and the point 



