1884.J some existing Non-harmonic Musical Scales. 383 



to the Octave forming nearly those intervals. But as I did not try 

 these with forks I do not record them. 



10. Small Chime of Belly, belonging to Mr. Hermann Smith. 

 Tour small bells of which the largest was 45 mm. in diameter and 

 13 mm. in height, arranged on a stem passing through them and 

 framed in a lyre-shaped wire. 



Vib 761 912 1004 1156 



From vib I 313 II 167 III 244 IV 



Sums 313 480 724 



The I 313 II is nearly a perfect minor Third of 316 cents. The III 

 and IV give almost precisely the Javese Salendro observed III 484, 

 and IV 728, so that the interval between them, 244 cents, is almost 

 precisely a Pentatone of 240 cents, or i Octave. If indeed II were 

 flatter, the notes of the bells might pass as part of such a scale. 



IX. JAPAN. 



In the Educational Section of the International Health Exhibition 

 of 1884 there was a considerable collection of Japanese instruments, 

 but there were no players. The only instruments which we could try 

 therefore were a Sho (the Chinese sheng (see CHINA, 3), but different 

 in the number and pitch and intervals of the notes) and a Biwa, or 

 four-string fretted lute. The Sho we found to be out of tune, as referred 

 to the scale exhibited, and to be impossible to blow satisfactorily. 

 The Biwa I first tried by measuring the lengths of the strings, and 

 afterwards with Mr. Hipkins, by tuning the strings arbitrarily and 

 taking the pitch from each fret. These results I record, because in 

 addition to the examples from India, they show very well that 

 ' measurements of lengths are only an approximation to the speaking 

 values of the strings, and that the latter vary considerably with the 

 thickness of the strings. This has an important bearing upon the 

 theoretical determination of scales given by the divisions of the 

 string. The results for India were valuable in this respect, but 

 they were not altogether satisfactory, because the string was English 

 and too thick. In the present case we had the genuine Japanese 

 strings. 



The Biwa is a lare and heavy but handsome instrument, well 

 made and finished, and answers exactly to Al Farabi's lute in Professor 

 Land's " Gramme Arabe," the four strings nearly coinciding at the 

 nut, passing over a semi-circular depression to the large tuning 

 pegs, and spreading out to a convenient distance apart by the bridge, 

 so that the plectrum, made of hard wood, spread out like the head of 

 a halbert, could easily be inserted between the strings, or pass over 

 them in rapid succession for arpeggio chords for which the instrument 



