PREHISTORIC ART. 



663 



rairifiTinn 



by the Peruvians before tlie Spanish conquest is sliown by the histo- 

 rian Garcilasso de la Vega.' Of their music lie says: 



In nuisic they arrived to a certain harmony, in wliich the Indians of Colla did 

 in()re particularly excel, having been the inventors of a certain pipe made of canes 

 srlncd together, every on(^ of which having a different note of higher and lower, in 

 the manner of organs, made a ]»leasing music by the dissonancy of sounds, the treljle, 

 teuor, and bass, exactly corresponding and 

 answering to each other ; with these pipes 

 they often played in ccmcert, and made 

 tolerable music, though they wanted the 

 ([uavers, semiquavers, airs, and many 

 voices which perfect the liarmony among 

 ns. They had, also, other pipes which 

 were flutes, with four or live stops, like 

 the pipes of shepherds. 



Kivero and Von Tscluidi^ mention 

 similar instruments made of reeds 

 of cane or stone and adorned some- 

 times with needlework. 



Fig. 325 represents an instrument 

 made of stone. It is reproduced 

 from Engel's drawing, ' and his de- 

 scription here follows: 



Another huyara-puhura, likewise still 

 yielding sounds, was discovered placed over a corpse in a Peruvian tomb, and was 

 procured by the French general, Paroissien. This instrument is made of a greenish 

 stone, which is a species of talc, and contains eight pipes. In the Berlin Museum 

 may be seen a good plaster cast taken from this curious relic. The height is 5f inches, 

 and its width 6^ inches. Four of the tubes have small lateral linger-holes, which, 

 when closed, lower the pitch a semitone. These holes are on the second, fourth, sixth, 

 and seventh pipes, as shown in the engraving. When the holes are open, the tones are : 



Fig. 325. 



SYRINX OF STONE. 



Peruvian grave. 



Engel, Musical Instruments, p. fiti. 





and when they are closed : 



^^ 



The other tubes have unalterable tones. The following notation exhibits all the 

 tones producible on the instrument: 



The musician is likely to speculate what could have induced the Peruvians to adopt 

 so strange a series of intervals; it seems rather arbitrary than meditated. 



The Peruvians tiea knots in strings to record their music.^ 



'Commentaries of Peru: English translation by Sir Piiul Rycant, Kt., London, 

 1688, Book II, p. 84. 



"Peruvian Antiquities, English translation by J>ancis L. Hawks, D. D., LL. D., 

 p. 143, et seq.. 



"Musical Instruments, p. 6(5. 



■■Rowbotham, History of Music, III, p. 198, citing de la Vega, II, p. 27. 



