NOTES ON THE ETHNOLOGY OF TIBET. 745 



are of two kinds — the small hand drum previously described, aud the 

 large drum [cWorna), which is cylindrical, about 2 feet in diameter and 

 8 or 10 inches high. To it is fastened a handle about 3 feet long, by 

 which it is held erect. It is struck by means of a stick shaped like a 

 sickle, with a long handle. This drum and also the hand drum are 

 apparently copied from two well-known kinds of Chinese drums. (See 

 J. A. Van Aalst, Chinese Music, p. 70.) 



The big trumpet or dnnf/-eh''en is from 6 to 8 feet long, made of cop- 

 per, aud is slightly bent so that the end may rest flat on the ground. 

 A smaller trumpet is made of a human tibia, and is called lang-diing 

 "leg-bone trumpet." No. 130386 is one of these.* A piece of skin 

 (supposed to be human) is sewed around it, and a plaited lash about 20 

 inches long hangs from its end. Such trumpets are used in exorcising 

 ceremonies. Another form of lang-duufj is made with the mouthpiece 

 and the lower portion of chased copper, the central part only being of 

 bone. 



The hautboy (jyelinf/) used by the lamas is of Chinese origin and pat- 

 tern, and calls for no particular remark beyond stating that most of them 

 have loose or sliding tubes by which means the sounds are modulated. 

 The cymbals {sinyen) used are also Chinese in shape and probably man- 

 ufacture. A small kind of cymbal called ding-sha, the disks of which are 

 about 2 inches in diameter and suspended horizontally by a short string 

 so that their edges may be struck together, is also used by the lamas — 

 not in church ceremonies, but only when reading prayers in their 

 houses. This latter instrument is the Indian mandira, used to measure 

 time in musical performances. 



Conch shells are used to call to prayers and for other i^urposes 

 similar to those for which the big trumi)ets are used. They have fre- 

 quently a metallic mouthpiece and are handsomely ornamented around 

 the rims. There is a most beautiful specimen of such a conch shell with 

 inscriptions on it in Chinese, Tibetan, Mongol, and Manchu in the Brit- 

 ish Museum. Conch shells with whorls turning to the right are espe- 

 cially prized, and a lamasery which is so fortunate as to possess one is 

 famed throughout the land. (Land of the Lamas, p. 110.) 



A system <»f musical notation is used by the lamas to teach chant- 

 ing and accompanying liturgies. These books, called yang yig, " hymn or 

 songbooks," contain akind of descriptive score, consistingof wavy lines, 

 showing when and for what space of time the voice should rise or fall. 

 Plate 51 shows several pages of this music. Where the conch shells 

 should be sounded or the drum beaten is shown by a figure of a shell or a 

 drumstick. This system of notation is specially interesting from the 

 fact that it is, so far as I am aware, the only one found in eastern or 

 central Asia. (Plate 51, and Land of the Lamas, p. 88, also Waddell, 

 Buddhism of Tibet, p. 432.) t 



* Not ilhistrated in this paper. 



t On lamaic musical instrumeuts, see also Georgi, Alphabetnm tibetanuni,p.404. 



