72 BULLETIN 136, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



the two ends. According to tradition, the archer's bow was tem- 

 porarily used as a musical instrument and then developed in a 

 variety of forms for musical use. In its earliest period the bow 

 was held against the player's lips, the mouth acting as a resonator 

 when the string was struck or twanged by the fingers. Such a 

 specimen in the exhibit has a particularly interesting history (95201, 

 pi. 30a). The bow is of oak, about 26 inches long, and the string 

 is of steel wire. Beside it will be seen the twisted wire with which 

 it was twanged. Prof. Otis T. Mason writes that a native Zulu 

 negro came into his office one day carrying this instrument, which 

 lie played in the following manner: The bow was held in his left 

 hand with the back against his lip, thus allowing his capacious mouth 

 to act as a resonator. In his right hand he held a piece of twisted 

 wire about 9 inches long, and he struck this against the string of the 

 bow in rapid strokes, the wire touching the bow with both the up- 

 ward and downward motions. He varied the sound by changing- the 

 shape of the cavity of his mouth, after the manner of a player on 

 the jew's-harp. Mr. Hawley states that "the maker and player, 

 Unger Sibassio, produced five notes, if not an octave, on this in- 

 strument." Three other specimens show a single cord fastened to a 

 bow, but have a peg by which the string is tightened. Such a 

 specimen is 48049, from San Ildefonso, in New Mexico, collected 

 by James Stevenson in 1880. One end of the string is fastened to 

 the bow and the other to the small end of a tuning peg. No. 19687 

 is from Indians living on the Tule Iliver in California and was 

 received in 1875. It is made from a cornstalk and has one string 

 of twisted sheep gut. The stalk shows a hole for a tuning peg, 

 which is not with the specimen. A still older specimen is 48048 

 (pi. 30&), collected among the Yaqui of Sonora, Mexico, by Palmer 

 in 1869. This is made of cane and has one string of sheep's gut fas- 

 tened to a transverse tuning peg. 



The musical bows already described were plaj^ed as open strings. 

 From Mashonaland, South Africa, we have an instrument (167516), 

 which is equally simple in construction but played as a stopped 

 string. The bow is a piece of cane, slightly curved. It has one 

 slender string of gut. The player holds the upper end of the bow 

 in his teeth and picks the string with his right thumb, stopping the 

 string against the bow with the index finger of his left hand. From 

 the same locality we have 167517, an instrument of more elaborate 

 construction with what might be regarded as a rudimentary bridge. 

 A cord is tied from the string to the back of the bow, bending the 

 string toward the bow and dividing it into two unequal parts, which 

 produce two open tones. It will be noted that the musical bows thus 

 far described are without resonators. The first actual development 

 consisted in attaching a portion of a gourd to the bow as a resonator. 



