124 DR TRAILL ON A PERUVIAN MUSICAL INSTRUMENT 
been customary to deposit with the dead the instruments they used, or articles they 
delighted in; and we may suppose that the Inca with whom this musical instru- 
ment was buried was not ignorant of its use. There is no figure of such an in- 
strument among any of the published remains of an American race, as far as my 
researches have extended; nor am I aware that it has been mentioned among 
the implements found among them by their Spanish conquerors. It therefore 
must be of considerably anterior date to the Spanish conquest; as we cannot 
suppose that since that era, so disastrous to the natives of America, any prince of 
a native race would have obtained the honours of a Huaca, in regions held by the 
fierce and bigoted conquerors. 
Description of the Instrument. 
The Peruvian antiquity in question is, in form and principle, similar to the 
Syrinx of the Greeks and Romans, or Pan’s Pipe, well known in England by the 
somewhat barbarous name of Pandean Pipes ; and in the Italo-Helvetian cantons 
by the appropriate denomination of Organetto, a diminutive of Organo, of which 
it is most probably the prototype. 
The Peruvian instrument, however, is not constructed of unequal reeds 
bound together ; but it is cut out of a solid mass of a compact, softish stone, 
which appears to me to be a variety of Potstone (Lapis ollaris). It is cut with 
great neatness and precision. Its form will be best understood by inspection of 
the figure. Its sides are not parallel, but they slightly converge toward the upper 
part of the instrument, for the purpose, apparently, of rendering the orifices of 
the pieces thin, without endangering the solidity of the whole. The corners of 
the bottom of the instrument are smoothly and slightly rounded, as if by friction 
from the hand of the player. The surface seems to have been covered with a 
brownish shining varnish, similar to the vegetable varnish employed still by the 
natives on the Essequibo and Orinoco to cover their pottery. It has in part de- 
cayed, and in one place bears the impression of cloth of a coarse texture having 
adhered to it. 
The surface, which has evidently been intended for the outside when played, 
is ornamented with a very regular pattern. The volutes are very neatly executed, 
and the regular removal of the angular spaces on the right-hand side of the zig- 
zag lines, shews an attempt at variety not unpleasing. The horizontal band of 
what we would call Maltese crosses, is very well executed. 
The extreme breadth of the instrument, including the handle, is 6-2 inte = 
its greatest depth 5-3; the thickness of the body of the instrument is from 0°7 to 
05 of an inch. The handle projects 1:1 inch from one end, and is perforated by 
four holes, two of which appear at its extremity, and one on each of its edges, 
each of them communicating, in the thickness of the handle, with one of the other 

