170 A STUDY OF CHIRIQUIAN ANTIQUITIES. 



describes one of their ceremonies, the balza, in which the conch-shell plays an 

 important role. I quote the author's own words : 



Quand un village a decide de donner une balzaria et que 1'epoque en a etc fixee, Ton 

 expedie des messagers prevenir les autres villages et faire les invitations . . . On invite tout le 

 monde, hommes et femmes, jeunes et vieux. Suivant les distances a parcourir, chacun par 

 groupe de famille se met en route de maniere a arriver au lieu du rendez-vous deux jours 

 avant le commencement des ceremonies . . . Durant le trajet, les invites soufflent de temps 

 en temps dans de grosses conques pour que leur son fasse connaitre a toute personne 

 habitant pres du chemin, leur passage et le but de leur voyage. 



If these Guaymis are descendants of the ancient race, it is not strange that 

 the latter should have left behind them so many examples of their wind-instru- 

 ments. The makers were not satisfied with stopping at the plain flute form, or 

 even with the ocarina. Their love for the plastic life form is nowhere better 

 exemplified than in the series of whistles in which the bird form is quite natur- 

 ally the favorite embodiment. On the other hand, some animals are represented 

 whose cries bear no resemblance to the sound of a whistle, as may be inferred 

 from the following list : Man, monkey, puma, deer, tapir, squirrel, ground-squirrel, 

 iguana, armadillo, crab, scorpion, parrot, owl, duck, partridge, several species of 

 small birds and other animal forms that can not be definitely determined. 



The tail or a leg is usually adapted as a mouthpiece and there is always 

 provision for suspending the instrument, chiefly by means of a transverse per- 

 foration through the neck. The finger-holes, generally two 

 ^ in*. j n number, have no fixed position except in the bird forms, 



where both are almost invariably on the breast. 



While the power and range of these whistles and flutes are 

 limited, the quality of the tone is often melodious. There are 

 generally three whole tones, each of the two intervals forming a 

 major second. Sometimes the first interval is equal to one and 

 a half whole tones, i. e.. a minor third, making the compass 

 from the lowest to the highest tone equal to the first four 

 notes of the scale instead of the first three. The tones are 

 Fi g .2 7 7-Doubiewhistie./. noted according to high pitch. The lowest tone is produced 



with both finger-holes stopped, the middle tone with one 



hole open and the highest with both holes open. The holes are usually so 

 nearly of the same size that it makes no difference which is opened first. The 

 pitch can be made to vary with the force of the breath. By making judicious 

 selections, a number of instruments may be played in unison. 



In the construction of the whistling apparatus one and the same principle is 

 always involved, viz., the directing of a stream of air against a cutting edge at 

 the mouth of a chamber. The working out of this principle in one of its simpler 

 forms, except that the parts are in duplicate, is exemplified in figure 274. There 

 is a fusion of two gourd-shaped whistles at the points of contact between the 

 bodies and at the termination of the necks ; the latter form a two-holed mouth- 

 piece, thus making it convenient to blow both whistles at the same time. As 

 these are not of the same pitch, the result is a shrill ear-splitting sound that can 

 be heard for a great distance. On the other hand, the two tones can be produced 



