4Hn 



KEPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1900. 



to 046. In other niusoiinis siinihir instruinonts are to be found. A 

 few from Chiriciui were ])riefly described fort}'^ years ago as belonging 

 to the American Ethnological SocietJ^^ 



In the American Museum of Natural History in New York, as 

 reported by Prof. F. W. Putnam, half a dozen such three- and four- 

 hole whistles from the region of Santa Marta, Colombia, are to be 

 seen; while under his charge at Cambridge, Mass., there are a number 

 from the Uloa Valley, Central America;"^ of those figured, three have 

 three finger-holes and are said to give five notes each. 



In the Brussels Conservatory Collection ^ there are twentj^-five terra 

 cotta instruments from Mexico; two of them are clearlj^ of this 

 resonator type, giving five notes and having a compass, respectivel3% 

 of eight and eleven E. 8. (fig. 3). Lastly, a similar 

 instrument described and figured b}- Dr. Walter 

 Hough, in the Report on the Columbian Historical 

 Exposition at Madrid. 1S1»2-1893, has the small com- 

 pass of six E. 8. The point should again be empha- 

 sized that with these instruments the notes get closer 

 and closer together as the pitch rises; for instance, on 

 the type instrument the successive intervals are in 

 whole numbers 4, 3, 2, 2, E. S. ; on the Brussels instru- 

 ments, 3, 2, 2, 1, and 4, 3, 2, 2; on the Madrid speci- 

 men, 2, 2, 1, 1. A i'hurt (Plate 10) will show more 

 accurately what the four intervals are with any speci- 

 fied ratio of holes, and whether there is appreciable 

 error in expressing the interval in whole numbers. 

 Of course the calculations assume uniformity in the 

 blowing, for it is easy for the performer to vary the notes by a con- 

 siderable amount. 8till, it is a surprise to find how well these simple 

 scales satisfy the ear. 



A sort of stone flageolet from Costa Rica appears to be connected 

 with these instruments in principle (Plate T, fig. 8). This is closed 

 at one end and has a small mouth opening and four finger-holes 

 arranged in pairs; its scale of seven notes from Hye holes proves that 

 the holes are not acoustically equivalent, but the two of each pair are 

 found to be nearly equivalent; so on trial it appears that the square 

 root formula may be applied, by giving to the mouth-hole the value 5, 

 to each of the nearer holes the value 1, and to the other holes the value 

 2; then the vibration frequencies will be as the square roots of the 

 numbers 5 to 11. The calculated intervals from the lowest note are 

 1.0, 2.9, 4.1, 5.1, 0.0, 0.8 E. 8.: the observed intervals are 2, 3, 4, 5, 

 6, and 7 E. 8. 



Fig. 3. 



TERRA COTTA WHISTLE. 

 After Mahlllon. 



1 Magazine of American History, IV, 1860, pp. 144, 177, 240, 274. 

 ■■'Memoirs of the Peabody Museum, 1, No. 4, pi. ix. 

 ^Mahillou's Catalogue, 11, Nos. 852, 853. 



