ENQUIRY INTO PLANTS, IV. xi. 5-7 



have ample vibration,^ which is essential for those 

 who play in the elaborate style. Such, they tell us, 

 are the proper seasons for cutting the reed used for 

 the reed mouthpiece. 



The manufacture is carried out in the following 

 manner. Having collected the reed-stems they lay 

 them in the open air during the winter, leaving on 

 the rind ; in the spring they strip this off, and, 

 having rubbed the reeds thoroughly, put them in 

 the sun. Later on, in the summer, they cut the 

 sections from knot to knot into lengths and again 

 put them for some time in the open air. They 

 leave the upper knot on this internodal section - ; 

 and the lengths thus obtained are not less than two 

 palmsbreadths long. Now they say that for making 

 mouthpieces the best lengths are those of the middle 

 of the reed, whereas the lengths towards the upper 

 growths make very soft mouthpieces and those next 

 to the root very hard ones. They say too that the 

 reed-tongues made out of the same length are of the 

 same quality, while those made from different lengths 

 are not ; also that the one from the length next to 

 the root fonns a left-hand ^ reed-tongue, and that 

 from the length towards the upper growths a right- 

 hand 3 reed-tongue. Moreover, when the length is 

 slit, the opening of the reed-tongues in either case 

 is made towards the point at which the reed was 

 cut*; and, if the reed-tongues are made in any other 

 manner, they are not quite of the same quality. Such 

 then is the method of manufacture. 



3 i.e. the vibrating 'tongues' (reeds) for the left-hand 

 and the right-hand pipe of the Double Pipe respectively. 



■• i.e. not at the closed end, but at the end which was 

 ' lower ' when the cane was growing : cf. § 6, irpoa\fiiroviTi 5e 

 K.r.X. 



373 



