1884.] some existing Non-harmonic Musical Scales. 373 



II. INDIA. 



There are two distinct kinds of scales in India, those of harmonicons, 

 most probably from hill tribes, and those of the stringed instruments 

 belonging to the conquering race. 



Balafoiig from Patna in the South Kensington Museum, a wooden 

 harmonicon strung over a beautifully carved case, consisting of 

 25 bars (of which we measured 14) containing 3 Octaves and 3 notes. 

 The Roman numerals II, III, &c., indicate the successive bars, I was 

 not measured. 



Vib 158 176 194 214 233 259 279 320 



From vib II 187 III 169 IV 170 V 147 VI 183 VII 129 VIII 237 IX 



Sums 187 356 526 673 856 985 I'lll 



Vib 320 355 391 434 484 531 582 



From vib IX 180 X 167 XI 181 XII 189 XIII 160 XIV 159 XV 



Sums, less 1222.. 180 347 528 717 877 1036 



Observe IV 356 cents, and VII 856 cents, which compare with 

 Zalzal in I. ARABIA. All the Octaves were too sharp. The old Indian 

 stringed instrument is the Vina with frets ^ to f inch high, so that 

 by pressing the string behind the fret the pitch can be greatly 

 altered. These frets are shiftable, but are usually fastened with wax. 

 I measured the vibrating lengths of string of many, but I consider 

 the resulting scales not sufficiently trustworthy for record here. This 

 pressing behind the fret is constantly employed to sharpen the pitch 

 by a quarter or half a Tone, The modern Sitdr, which has practically 

 superseded the Vina, is a very long-necked guitar with movable frets. 

 These frets are set for the rag or rdgini (tune, key, or mode) in which 

 the musician is going to play. They are high enough above the finger- 

 board to allow pressure behind to exert a sensible effect, but the 

 ordinary method of raising the pitch is to deflect the string by 

 moving the finger with the string transversely along the fret. As, 

 however, the frets are properly set, this deflection is used only for 

 grace notes at the end, suddenly raising the pitch about a quarter of 

 a Tone and returning it to its former position. 



H.H. Raja Ram Pal Singh was kind enough to bring his sitar 

 (which he left with me), and setting it in five different manners to 

 play Indian airs to us. After he had done so I measured the position 

 of the frets, so that I could return them to their places. Afterwards 

 we sounded each note, took its pitch, and determined the scale by my 

 forks. This, I believe, is the first time that this has been done for 

 any Indian instrument. The pitch for the open string was not the 

 same as that used by the Raja, for these measurements were not 

 taken till long afterwards, but the relative pitch remained the same. 

 This string, which was an English pianoforte steel wire, replacing 

 the Indian steel wire which was broken, was too thick, and this 

 interfered somewhat with the setting. As I had calculated the 



