98 BULLETIN 136, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



malacca cane and the fingers are crowded between the hair and stick 

 to act as a frog. • A similar instrument with two silk strings is 

 96582-1, while 96582 (pi. 44^) has three strings of doubled and 

 twisted fiber. The belly of thin skin is laced through holes in its 

 edge to a hoop of twisted split rattan around the lower part of the 

 body. 



A Japanese fiddle (93203, pi. 4Ae) has four silk strings, the two 

 highest tuned in unison. The player holds the instrument upright, 

 turning it to right or left as may be necessary to bring it in contact 

 with the bow, which is long and slender. 



Two primitive fiddles are from Singapore; they are played like 

 the Chinese instruments. One of these (94926) has the body of 

 coconut shell pierced with sound holes at the back. The bow is a 

 round bamboo stick, the hair passing through holes in the end. A 

 similar instrument (94927) has two silk strings and a belly of snake 

 skin. 



Stringed instruments are not native to the American Indians and 

 occur in only a few tribes where the model has undoubtedly been 

 acquired from the white man. Four fiddles of the Apache Indians 

 are shown. Two of these (213280 and 204655) were obtained by 

 Dr. Walter Hough; 5521& was collected by Dr. E. Palmer near 

 Tucson, Ariz.; and the oldest of the group, which was obtained in 

 1875, is 21536 (pi. 30A). All these are made from the flower stalk 

 of the yucca except the first named, which is made from an agave 

 stalk. The pith is extracted except at the ends, and the fiddle is 

 strung with one string; in one instance this is sinew and in another 

 it is twisted horsehair. The bow is a short, half-round stick, strung 

 with horsehair tied in place with sinew. This instrument, when 

 played, was held at right angles with the body, the lower end of the 

 instrument pressed against the middle of the player's chest. The 

 right hand stopped the strings and the left hand ran the bow back 

 and forth with a motion like sawing the string. A player with 

 his instrument is shown in Plate 45, which is a copy of an old 

 photograph. 



In the Middle Ages there were two musical instruments called 

 "marine trumpet" (tromba marina). One was a wind instrument 

 and the other a stringed instrument played with a bow. The former 

 is of little interest at the present time, but the latter was an impor- 

 tant ancestor of the violin family. Three examples are shown, 95280 

 and 95281, obtained in Italy, and 219418, an American reproduction. 

 It was a long, shallow instrument usually open at the base. The 

 front was flat and the back made with several angles. It had only 

 one string and was characterized by a curious, trembling bridge. 

 This marine trumpet was played by nuns and ecclesiastics and there 

 is no record that it was ever used by sailors. Galpin believes it re- 



