66 MUSICAL INSTEUMENTS. 



these men, who was upwards of a hundred 

 years of age, and had been in the service of tlie 

 Meer's ancestors since boyhood. Another of 

 these minstrels was also far advanced in years, 

 and he died whilst I was at Khyrpoor; his 

 name was Juddarung [coloured everlastingly] ; 

 and it was declared that after his interment 

 his old horse was so grieved at the loss of his 

 master, that he refused both grass and water 

 for three days, and broke his head-rope repeat- 

 edly to get to the grave of the deceased, where 

 he was found smelling at the earth, and was 

 with difficulty removed. The story was firmly 

 believed by all classes at Khyrpoor. 



The instruments used by the Meer's musicians 

 are, I believe, from Surat or Bombay ; but the 

 ordinary instrument of Sindh is tlie tomtom, 

 which varies in size from about three feet in 

 diameter to the calibre of a slop-basin, and this 

 is the instrument employed at Naidches and 

 the like, being beaten v/itli the fingers just 

 to mark the time. The laro-er kinds are used 

 in processions, carried on a camel or in a cart. 

 A kind of guitar, formed out of a dried gourd, 

 resembling the citar of India, is very generally 

 played on at Nautches, of wliicli the Ameer, 



