HANDBOOK OF THE COLLECTION OP MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS 97 



The sarode (92692), according to Tagore, is "a drawing-room 

 stringed instrument played with a wooden Jawa [plectrum] . . . 

 [It is] mostly used in the upper Provinces. It was formerly used 

 as an outdoor instrument in royal possessions." It is also played 

 with a bow and in this usage it "is used to accompany the sarangi 

 as the tenor or second fiddle." 



" Mayuri " is the Hindu name for peacock and is also given to an 

 instrument with a body made of wood, carved to represent a pea- 

 cock, with head, neck, wings, and feet. It is classified as a fiddle, 

 though the strings were sometimes plucked. Day states that it is 

 rarely seen out of upper India, where it is used chiefly by nautch 

 musicians. The specimen exhibited (92696, pi. 43e) has 5 wire 

 strings and 15 sympathetic wires of graduated lengths. The latter 

 pass through eyelets in the finger board to turning pegs placed in a 

 piece of wood fastened to the left side of the neck. This is played 

 with an ordinary fiddle bow. A modern instrument, classified as a 

 bowed vina, is 92689. 



Before proceeding to the third class of bowed string instruments 

 (viols), we will consider a group of fiddles and the curious "marine 

 trumpet " with its single string. 



The Chinese have a two-stringed instrument "hu hu" similar to 

 the ravanestrum of India and played with a bow. Its strings are 

 tuned a fifth apart. Three typical instruments of this class are 

 54027, 54028 (pi. 44c?), and 54029, which were obtained in 1876 

 from the Chinese Imperial Centennial Commission. The last named 

 has a belly of snake skin. Similar to this is 130445 (pi. 44«). The 

 bow used with these instruments is a slender wand of bamboo with 

 a hooked peg driven into the bow near the handle. The bow hair 

 is fastened to the tip and the other end of the hair is looped around 

 the hooked peg. When the instrument is played the bow hair is 

 unhitched from the peg, passed over one string and under the other, 

 and then hitched on the peg again. A Chinese fiddle (96651) is part 

 of the Chinese orchestra obtained at Pekin by John B. Henderson 

 and given to the Museum. It is strung with four silk strings tuned 

 in pairs, a fifth apart. An instrument of this shape but having the 

 body a section of coconut shell is called T'i-ch'in. This is played 

 chiefly by blind men. Two specimens are exhibited — 54030 and 

 54031 (pi. 446). 



Four Siamese fiddles having the body made of the shell of the 

 coconut or similar nut are 54065, 54066, and 96582. The first named 

 is peculiar in that the back of the body has a delicate openwork 

 rosette, representing fruits and flowers, for a sound hole. When 

 played the bow hair is passed between the strings so as to go over 

 one and under the other. The second named has a fancy foot, 

 turned like a spire and more than 10 inches long. The bow is a 



