6 THE MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS OF THE INCAS. 



Tschudi has published three Peruvian elegiac songs or liaravis ■ 

 which he says "might serve to test the musical knowledge of the 

 ancient Peruvians," but an examination of these pieces is very 

 disappointing. Carl Engel remarks : 



"At all events they must have been tampered with, as they ex- 

 hibit exactly the form of the Spanish bolero. Even allowing that the 

 melodies of these compositions have been derived from Peruvian 

 haravis, it is impossible to determine with any degree of certainty 

 how much in them has been retained of the original tunes, and how 

 much has been supplied besides the harmony, which is entirely an 

 addition of the European arranger." ^ 



The first and simplest element of music is rhythm, and in 

 singing or dancing a desire for some sound that shall clearly 

 mark it is universal; hence, in the absence of musical instru- 

 ments, the custom of snapping the fingers, clapping the hands, 

 beating the hips and stamping the feet; and I am mclined to 

 follow Rowbotham ^ in believing that the art of instrumental 

 music in prehistoric times passed through three stages, which 

 may be designated the "drum" type, the "pipe" type, and the 

 "lyre" type. The first type includes all instruments of percus- 

 sion, as drums, rattles, gongs, castanets, etc. ; the second, all 

 wind instruments, and the third, all stringed instruments. In 

 support of this theory he cites the evidence furnished by the 

 mechanical complexity of the instruments themselves. The 

 drum is the simplest form; the pipe is more complex than 

 the drum ; and the lyre, which makes use of stretched strings, 

 is the most complex of all. 



That the drum was the first instrument of primiti\-e man is 

 strenuously opposed by Wallaschek, who says : 



"The most ancient discoveries (from the youth of mankiml) of 

 flutes and pipes, Init not of drums, are definite facts wliidi no specu- 

 lation can put aside, and I am rather inclined to beHeve that Wagener 

 was correct in saying that a wind instrument was undoubtedly the 

 first." ■• 



' Antigiicdadcs Pc-ruanas, pp. 135, i,-;6. 



' Musical Instruments, p. 7q. 



3 Jdurnal .\nlhro. Institute Gr. Brit, and Ireland, Vol. X, pp. ,-580-381. 



'^ Primitive Music, p. 84. 



