40 BULLETIN 136, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



hautbois (94932) has the double reed made of two pieces of palm 

 leaf fastened on the small end of the mouth tube. From Burma is 

 shown a hautbois with double reed of palm leaf (95489), and a 

 Singhalese instrument is 95713. A Turkish hautbois is 95136 with 

 double reed of grass stalk. A Moorish instrument is 95763, and an 

 oboe from Egypt is 95196. 



In this, as in other classes of musical instruments, there is an 

 interesting Russian group from the Georgians, living at Tiflis in 

 the Caucasus. These are 94767, 94768, and 72979. The latter is a 

 cylindrical tube of wood, its lower end terminating in a ball, within 

 which the tube exjjands. The mouthpiece of a similar instrument 

 (72978) is 



made from a stalk of Dourrahma species of maize. The lower end is cut just 

 below a joint ; above the joint it is constructed by the tight winding of a cord. 

 When the stalk was green, about an inch above this, the cuticle was removed. 

 The upper part is pressed flat, thus forming a double reed. A disk of pearl 

 has a hole made in its center to fit the flattened portion of the mouthpiece. 

 This is forced on the upper end and forms a guide for the length to be inserted 

 In the mouth. A keeper formed of a short section of reed is split and hollowed 

 to fit the end of the reed, then it is slashed together at each end with a small 

 cord or thread. 



Two Italian double-reed instruments, not classified as oboe, are 

 95300 and 95301, made of unvarnished wood, in two or three pieces, 

 and having four finger holes. 



The double-reed instruments of primitive type are chiefly from 

 the Skidegate and Massetts Indians of the Queen Charlotte Islands 

 and the Bellabella Indians of British Columbia, the specimens 

 having been collected by James G. Swan in 1875 and 1883-84. These 

 instruments are made of two longitudinal sections of wood, each sec- 

 tion forming half of a flattened tube and also one of the sides or 

 valves of a double reed. The two strips of wood are lashed together 

 with split spruce roots. One instrument (20689) is shaped some- 

 what like a paddle; the halves are excavated to form two air pas- 

 sages starting from the lower end and ending in one air passage 

 before the top is reached. The double-reed instruments 88876 and 

 88878 are used in masquerades and other ceremonies. A large in- 

 strument (88894) is made of two strips of wood lashed together 

 with split spruce roots, and afterwards the tube portion is covered 

 with a coarse tow-like fiber loosely wound around it. The bell-like 

 form of 20695 suggests that it is copied from some European 

 instrument. 



A curious example is 89064, consisting of a short tube of wood with 

 double reeds fitted inside it. This tube is inserted in place of the 

 nozzle on a pair of common hand bellows. The boards of the bel- 

 lows are painted with the conventionalized bear. 



